Division  ..BS^t)  2-5" 
Section.v.Q...LuO  O 

No. 


W.  J.  LIIAMON,  M.  A. 


Studies  in  Acts 


THE    NEW  TESTAMENT 
BOOK  OF  BEGINNINGS 


By  W.  J.  LHAMON,  M.  A. 


WITH  AN 

INTRODUCTION  BY    A.   McLEAN, 
Corresponding  Secretary  of  the  Foreign  Christian  Missionary  Society 


St.  Louis 
CHRISTIAN  PUBLISHING   COMPANY 

1897 


Copyrighted,  1897,  by 
CHRISTIAN  PUBLISHING  COMPANY. 


Hftcctionatclg  ITnscribeD 

XTo  /ID^  ffatber  anD  /iDotbct 


CONTENTS. 

Introduction 7 

Preliminary  Essay 11 

I.    The  First  Sermon  after  the  Ascension  ...  29 

II.     The  First  Church 51 

III,     The  First  Persecutions 71 

rv.     The  First  Martyr 89 

V.     The  First  Gentile  Convert 105 

VI.     The  First  Gentile- Christian  Church    .        .        .  123 

VII.     The  First  Martyr  Apostle 143 

VIII.     The  First  Foreign  Missionaries     ....  159 

IX.     The  First  Foreign  Missionary  Journey  .        .        .  177 

X.     The  First  Church  Council 199 

XI.    The  First  Missionary  Journey  in  Europe       .        .  215 

XII.    Paul's  First  Imprisonment  in  Rome      .        .        .  237 

XIII.  The  First  History  of   the    Holy    Spirit    in    the 

Church 259 

XIV.  Excursus.    The  Apostle   Paul  as  Organizer  and 

Unifier 275 

Notes  and  Comments 301 


INTRODUCTION. 


At  Oriental  feasts  there  is  an  officer  who  tastes  the  food 
and  drink  before  they  are  served  and  certifies  to  their  whole - 
someness  and  palatableness.  My  duty  is  similar  to  that  of 
the  official  taster.  I  have  tasted  the  following  pages  and 
have  found  them  '  'the  joy  and  rejoicing  of  my  heart.  "  I  am 
persuaded  that  po  one  can  read  them  with  care  and  moral 
earnestness  without  profit. 

The  Lord  endowed  the  writer  of  these  essays  with  a  large 
soul.  He  gave  him  insight  and  independence.  Mr.  Lhamon 
is  a  man  of  scholarly  tastes  and  scholarly  attainments.  His 
experience  in  the  pulpit  has  taught  him  to  present  the  pro- 
foundest  truths  in  such  a  way  that  the  common  people  can 
grasp  and  remember  them.'  He  has  given  years  of  patient 
and  reverent  study  to  the  Book  of  Acts.  He  has  read  what 
the  best  commentators  have  written.  In  these  essays  he 
gives  results  and  omits  processes.  A  glance  at  the  Table 
of  Contents  will  show  that  he  has  seized  on  points  of  capital 
importance.  He  gives  his  readers  the  cream  of  what  he  has 
learned. 

Bacon,  writing  of  books,  said,  "Some  are  to  be  tasted, 
others  to  be  swallowed,  and  some  few  to  be  chewed  and 
digested. ' '  One  will  not  read  many  pages  of  this  book  be- 
fore he  will  know  to  which  class  it  belongs.  Though  written 
by  a  scholar  it  can  be  read  by  all.  I  have  not  found  a  dull 
or  obscure  sentence  in  it  from  first  to  last.  I  may  not  agree 
with  the  author  in  every  detail;  that  is  a  merit  rather  than 


INTRODUCTION 

a  defect.  It  would  be  a  poor  compliment  to  the  writer  if  I 
did.  These  eloquent  and  luminous  pages  have  helped  me 
mightily  and  have  provoked  me  to  study  the  Book  of  Acts 
with  renewed  interest.  I  believe  they  will  affect  others  in 
the  same  way. 

This  book  appears  at  the  nick  of  time.  The  Sunday- 
schools  are  going  to  devote  most  of  the  coming  year  to  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles.  Teachers  and  scholars  need  the  best 
helps  in  the  market.  They  need  the  commentaries  that  they 
may  study  the  text  word  by  word.  They  will  need  these 
essays  in  addition  to  the  commentaries.  The  plan  of  the 
work  afforded  the  author  freedom  for  enlarging  upon  points 
of  historic  and  doctrinal  moment,  for  an  enlarged  treatment 
of  the  character  and  influence  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  and  for 
such  a  unique  and  consecutive  treatment  of  subjects  as  is 
found  in  the  last  two  essays.  In  these  Mr.  Lhamon  sets 
forth,  in  a  systematic  way,  the  historic  work  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  in  the  Apostolic  times,  and  the  three  principles  which 
guided  Paul  in  the  organization  of  churches.  They  are: 
The  historic  or  conservative  ^principle ;  liberty  under  the 
direction  of  the  Holy  Spirit;  and  expediency  in  many  matters. 
The  one  supreme  thing  is  love.  The  discussion  of  these 
principles  is  particularly  vigorous  and  suggestive.  In  my 
opinion,  the  reader  will  find  this  study  of  the  Book  of  Acts 
both  fresh  and  helpful. 

A.  McLean. 

Cincinnati. 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS 


PRELIMINARY    ESSAY. 

The  Book  of  Acts  is  unique.  It  is  the  key-book 
of  the  New  Testament.  It  is  "  The  Gospel  of  the 
Holy  Spirit."  It  is  a  history,  a  biography,  a  mis- 
sionary manual,  and  an  apology.  As  a  history  of  the 
first  church  it  is  indispensable;  as  a  character  sketch 
of  the  greatest  apostle  it  is  priceless ;  as  the  manual 
of  his  missionary  achievements  it  is  of  thrilling 
interest;  as  an  apology  it  pleads  the  innocence  of 
Paul  when  on  trial  in  the  courts  of  the  Roman 
Empire. 

In  this  book  we  are  brought  to  the  fulfillment  of 
ancient  prophecy  and  the  beginning  of  modern  his- 
tory. In  it  we  pass  from  the  ethnic  to  the  universal 
in  religion,  and  from  era  to  era  in  the  providence  of 
God.  It  is  from  first  to  last  the  story  of  a  majestic 
battlefield  with  Jerusalem  and  Antioch  and  Ephesus 
and  Corinth  and  Rome  for  its  strategic  points,  with 
weapons  of  warfare  not  carnal,  but  spiritual,  and 
mighty  through  God  to  the  pulling  down  of  strong- 
holds, and  with  victories  bloodless  and  admirable 
over  principalities  and  powers,  and  spiritual  wick- 
edness in  high  places. 

The  Gospel  according  to  Luke,  his  "  first  treatise," 
is  the  record  of  "all  that  Jesus  began  to  do  and  to 
teach;  "  this  is  the  record  of  what  the  apostles  of 

(11) 


12  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

Jesus  began  to  do  and  to  teach.  As  regards  the 
Savior's  church  it  is  the  book  of  beginnings.  There 
is  the  beginning  of  spiritual  enduement,  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Gospel  ministry,  the  beginning  of  con- 
versions, the  beginning  of  organization,  the  beginning 
of  emancipation  from  legalism,  and  the  beginning 
of  world-wide  evangelization. 

The  evidential  value  of  the  book  of  Acts  is  unsur- 
passed. It  is  replete  with  facts  that  bear  the  stamp 
of  genuineness.  Fiction  does  not  create  sermons 
like  that  on  Pentecost,  or  martyrdoms  like  that  of 
Stephen,  or  conversions  like  that  of  Cornelius,  or 
missionary  heroism  like  that  of  Paul,  or  a  society 
like  the  first  church,  united  in  love  and  Spirit-guided. 
At  many  points  this  book  touches  with  delicacy  and 
precision  the  geography,  the  history  and  the  customs 
of  the  first  century,  both  among  the  Jews  and  the 
Romans.  The  apostles  Peter  and  James  and  Paul 
must  forever  hold  their  historic  places  side  by  side 
with  Felix  and  Festus  and  Herod  and  Claudius  and 
Nero,  with  this  difference,  that  while  the  ordinary  or 
even  inferior  careers  of  these  Roman  rulers  are  fully 
accounted  for  by  quite  the  ordinary  causes,  the  supe- 
rior careers  of  these  apostles  are  not  at  all  to  be 
accounted  for  except  by  the  historic  presence  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  bearing  witness  to  Jesus,  and  glorifying 
him  through  them.  The  careers  of  these  men,  and 
their  historic  and  spiritual  creations,  refuse  to  vanish 
from  sight  in  the  crucible  of  the  hyper-higher- 
critics.     If  Paul  should  be  torn  from  our  reason,  he 


STUDIES    IN   ACTS  13 

would  still  cling  to  our  hearts,  and  they  to  him. 
But  having  him,  reason  demands  more,  and  Christ 
and  the  Holy  Spirit,  as  the  exponents  of  his  conver- 
sion and  career,  become  intellectual  necessities. 

It  is  a  matter  of  prime  interest  to  know  the  con- 
clusions of  the  latest  learned  criticism  regarding  this 
book.  Prof.  W.  M.  Ramsay,  in  his  great  Avork  enti- 
tled "St.  Paul  the  Traveler  and  the  Roman  Citizen," 
published  only  last  year,  has  this  to  say: 

"I  may  fairly  claim  to  have  entered  on  this  inves- 
tigation without  any  prejudice  in  favor  of  the  conclu- 
sion which  I  shall  now  attempt  to  justify  to  the 
reader.  On  the  contrary,  I  began  with  a  mind 
unfavorable  to  it,  for  the  ingenuity  and  apparent 
completeness  of  the  Tubingen  theory  had  at  one  time 
quite  convinced  me.  It  did  not  then  lie  in  my  line 
of  life  to  investigate  the  subject  minutely;  but  more 
recently  I  found  myself  often  brought  in  contact  with 
the  book  of  Acts  as  an  authority  for  the  topogi-aphy, 
antiquities,  and  society  of  Asia  Minor.  It  was  gradu- 
ally borne  in  upon  me  that  in  various  details  the  nar- 
rative showed  marvelous  truth.  In  fact,  beginning 
with  the  fixed  idea  that  the  work  was  essentially  a 
second  century  composition,  and  never  relying  on  its 
evidence  as  trustworthy  for  first-century  conditions, 
I  gradually  came  to  find  it  a  useful  ally  in  some 
obscure  and  difficult  investigations." 

Following  this  frank  statement  of  his  personal 
experience,  the  author  proceeds  to  an  equally  frank 
dismissal  of  all  theories  that  would  make  the  book 


14  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

a  second-century  production  with  mythical  admix- 
tures and  tendency  purposes,  or  that  would  make  it 
a  piece  of  ill-assorted  second-century  patch-work 
from  documents  A,  B,  C,  etc.,  by  redactors  L,  II., 
III.,  etc. 

He  says  (page  10),  "All  theories  of  this  class  imply 
that  the  atmosphere  and  surroundings  of  the  work 
are  of  the  second-century  type;  and  such  theories 
have  to  be  founded  on  a  proof  that  the  details  are 
represented  in  an  accurate  way  and  colored  by 
second-century  ideas.  The  efforts  of  that  earlier 
school  of  critics  were  directed  to  give  the  required 
proof,  and  in  the  attempt  they  displayed  a  misappre- 
hension of  the  real  character  of  ancient  life  and 
Roman  history  which  is  often  astonishing,  and  which 
has  been  decisively  disproved  in  the  process  of 
Roman  historical  investigation.  All  such  theories 
belong  to  the  pre-Mommsenian  epoch  of  Roman  his- 
tory; they  are  now  impossible  for  a  rational  and 
educated  critic;  and  they  hardly  survive  except  in 
popular  magazines  and  novels  of  the  semi-religious 
order." 

Quite  explicitly  the  author  states  his  working 
hypothesis.  "Acts  was  written  by  a  great  historian 
(a  first-class  historian,  he  says  elsewhere),  a  writer, 
who  set  himself  to  record  the  facts  as  they  occurred, 
a  strong  partisan,  indeed,  but  raised  above  partiality 
by  his  perfect  confidence  that  he  had  only  to  describe 
the  facts  as  they  occurred,  in  order  to  make  the  truth 
of  Christianity  and  the  honor  of  Paul  apparent.     To 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS  15 

a  Gentile  Christian,  as  the  author  of  Acts  was,  the 
refusal  of  the  Jews  to  listen  to  Paul,  and  their  hatred 
of  him  as  untrue  to  their  pride  of  birth,  must  appear 
due  to  pure  malignity;  and  the  growing  estrangement 
must  seem  to  him  the  fault  of  the  Jews  alone.  It  is 
not  my  object  to  assume  or  to  prove  that  there  was 
no  prejudice  in  the  mind  of  Luke,  no  fault  on  the 
part  of  Paul ;  but  only  to  examine  whether  the  facts 
stated  are  trustworthy,  and  leave  them  to  speak  for 
themselves  (as  the  author  does).  I  shall  argue  that 
the  book  was  composed  by  a  personal  friend  and 
disciple  of  Paul,  and  if  this  be  once  established  there 
will  be  no  hesitation  in  accepting  the  primitive 
tradition  that  Luke  was  the  author." 

The  reader  is  asked  to  bear  with  one  more  quota- 
tion from  Prof.  Ramsay's  first  chapter: 

**  The  characterization  of  Paul  in  Acts  is  so 
detailed  and  individualized  as  to  prove  the  author's 
personal  acquaintance.  Moreover,  the  Paul  of  Acts 
is  the  Paul  that  appears  to  us  in  his  own  letters,  in 
his  ways  and  his  thoughts,  in  his  educated  tone  of 
polished  courtesy,  in  his  quick  and  vehement  tem- 
per, in  the  extraordinary  versatility  and  adaptability 
which  made  him  at  home  in  every  society,  moving  at 
ease  in  all  surroundings,  and  everywhere  the  center 
of  interest,  whether  he  is  the  Socratic  dialectician  in 
the  agora  of  Athens,  or  the  rhetorician  in  its  uni- 
versity, or  conversing  w^ith  kings  and  proconsuls,  or 
advising  in  the  council  on  shipboard,  or  cheering  a 
broken-spirited  crew  to   make   one   more   effort  for 


16  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

life.  Wherever  Paul  is,  no  one  present  has  eyes  for 
any  but  him.  Such  a  view  could  not  have  been 
taken  by  a  second  century  author.  The  church  in 
the  second  century  had  passed  into  new  circum- 
stances, and  was  interested  in  quite  different  ques- 
tions. The  catastrophe  of  the  persecution  of  Domi- 
tian,  and  the  effect  produced  for  the  time  on  the 
attitude  of  the  church  by  the  deliberate  attempt  to 
suppress  and  destroy  it  on  the  part  of  the  imperial 
government,  made  a  great  gulf  between  the  first  cen- 
tury and  the   second  century  of  Christian  history." 

The  leading  arguments  in  favor  of  the  authorship 
of  Luke  (in  addition  to  the  above)  are, 

First,  The  traditions  of  the  early  church,  which 
with  one  consent  (authorities  tell  us)  ascribe  the 
authorship  to  the  author  of  the  Gospel  according  to 
Luke. 

Secondly,  Similarity  in  literary  style  and  method 
between  Acts  and  the  Gospel  according  to  Luke.  At 
least  fifty  words  are  peculiar  to  these  two  books. 
**Luke  being  acknowledged  as  the  author  of  the 
Gospel,  we  know  from  that  source  what  the  charac- 
teristics of  his  style  are;  and  it  is  maintained  that 
these  reappear  in  Acts  to  such  an  extent  that  we  can 
account  for  the  agreement  only  by  referring  the  two 
productions  to  the  same  writer." — HacJkett. 

Thirdly,  The  evidence  of  what  are  called  the 
**We-narratives."  In  several  passages  the  writer  uses 
the  first  personal  pronoun  in  such  a  way  as  to  indi- 
cate his  companionship  with  Paul.     These  passages 


STUDIES    IN   ACTS  17 

are  xvi.  10-17;  xx.  5-xxi.  18;  xxvii.  and  xxviii.  Great 
weight  attaches  to  them,  inasmuch  as  any  other  explan- 
ation than  that  of  companionship  seems  impossible. 
Meyer  says,  "The  WE-narrative,  with  its  vivid  and 
direct  impress  of  personal  participation,  always 
remains  a  strong  testimony  in  favor  of  a  companion 
of  the  apostle  as  author  of  the  whole  book,  of  which 
that  narrative  is  a  part;  to  separate  the  subject  of 
that  narrative  from  the  author  of  the  whole,  is  a 
procedure   of   skeptical   caprice."     (See  Essay  XI.) 

As  to  the  date  of  the  composition,  the  Variorum 
Bible  says:  "When  and  where  the  book  of  Acts 
was  written  must  be  a  matter  of  mere  conjecture. 
We  only  know  that  it  must  have  been  written  after 
St.  Luke's  Gospel  (75  A.  D.)."  This  statement  is 
perhaps  too  strong.  However,  there  is  little  agree- 
ment among  commentators.  Hackett  places  it  about 
63;  Lumby,  63  to  70;  Meyer  about  80;  Ramsay 
places  the  composition  of  Luke's  Gospel  79-81,  and 
that  of  Acts  somewhat  later.  His  arguments  are 
more  than  usually  interesting,  and  one  cannot  but 
feel  their  force. 

The  chronology  of  the  book  of  Acts  is  of  the  very 
first  importance.  It  is  practically  the  chronology  of 
the  New  Testament.  Luke,  however,  gives  but  few 
notes  of  time,  and  the  difficulty  of  constructing  a 
series  of  dates  has  been  great.  The  prophecy  of 
Agabus  (xi.  28),  and  the  date  of  the  famine,  extend- 
ing, as  Prof.  Ramsay  thinks,  into  the  year  46  A.  D. 
(see  Note),  fixes  the  time  of  one  of  Paul's  visits  to 


18  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

Jerusalem.  This  the  same  author  seeks  to  identify 
with  the  visit  described  by  Paul  himself  in  Gal. 
ii.  1-10.  If,  then,  this  visit  may  be  placed  as  late  as 
46,  and  if  the  fourteen  years  named  by  Paul  (Gal. 
ii.  1)  includes  the  three  years  of  his  sojourn  in  Ara- 
bia, and  dates  therefore  from  his  conversion,  the 
latter  event,  together  with  the  death  of  Stej)hen, 
would  fall  as  early  as  32  or  33.  Some  place  the 
death  of  Stephen  as  early  as  30;  others  as  late  as  36 
•or  37.  Meyer  decides  upon  33  or  34.  Prof.  Kam- 
say's  argument  and  conclusion,  as  stated  above,  are 
entitled  to  great  weight. 

Another  date  is  given  in  xviii.  2.  The  edict  of  Clau- 
dius was  in  52.  It  was  probably  in  the  same  year 
that  Paul  met  Priscilla  and  Aquila  in  Corinth. 

One  of  the  closest  calculations  of  time  anywhere  to 
be  found  is  given  by  Prof.  Ramsay  on  page  289  of 
the  work  above  named.  **In  A.  D.  57,  Passover  fell 
on  Thursday,  April  7.  The  company  sailed  away 
from  Philippi  on  the  morning  of  Friday,  April  15 
(xx.  6),  and  the  journey  to  Troas  lasted  till  the  fifth 
day,  Tuesday,  April  19.  In  Troas  they  stayed  seven 
days,  the  first  of  which  was  April  19,  and  the  last, 
Monday,  April  25.  Luke's  rule  is  to  state  first  the 
whole  period  of  residence,  then  some  detail  of  the 
residence.  On  the  Sunday  evening  just  before 
the  start,  the  whole  congregation  at  Troas  met  for 
the  Agape;  religious  services  were  conducted  late 
into  the  night;  and  in  the  early  morning  of  Monday 
the  party  went  on  board  and  set  sail.     In  A.  D.  56, 


STUDIES    IN   ACTS  19 

58,  59,  incidence  of  the  Passover  is  not  reconcilable 
with  Luke's  statistics,  as  is  apparent  from  the 
attempts  that  have  been  made  to  torture  his  words 
into  agreement." 

Still  another  important  note  of  time  is  the  appoint- 
ment by  Nero  of  Fortius  Festus  in  the  room  of  Felix 
(xxiv.  27).  The  date  of  this  change  assigned  almost 
unanimousl}'  by  scholars,  is  A.  D.  60.  Felix  left 
Paul  a  prisoner  in  the  hands  of  Festus.  Under  Fes- 
tus Paul  made  his  appeal  to  Caesar,  and  was  soon 
after  sent  to  Rome.  These  circumstances  fix  the 
later  years  of  Paul's  life  with  almost  absolute 
precision. 

Perhaps  it  will  never  be  found  possible  to  give 
absolute  dates  except  upon  a  few  points.  It  is  hoped 
the  following  list  will  commend  itself  to  readers  as 
having  a  fair  consensus  of  scholarship  in  its  favor. 

The  ascension  of  Jesus  and  the  Pentecost  follow- 
ing. May,  A.  D.  30;  Death  of  Stephen  and  conver- 
sion of  Paul,  32-33;  Barnabas  and  Paul  in  Antioch, 
42-43;  Death  of  James  and  Herod  Agrippa,  44;  The 
famine  foretold  by  Agabus,  45-46;  Paul's  first  mis- 
sionary journey,  47;  Council  in  Jerusalem,  49-50; 
Paul's  second  missionary  journey,  51-54;  Paul's 
third  missionary  journey,  55-58;  Paul's  fifth  and 
last  journey  to  Jerusalem,  58;  Paul's  journey  to 
Rome,  60 ;    His  first  imprisonment  under  Nero,  61-63. 

The  book  of  Acts  presents  us  with  a  historic  basis 
for  our  Christian  faith.  The  personalities  of  Peter 
and  Paul  in  history,  and  the  impress  of  these  men. 


20  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

especially  the  latter,  upon  their  times  and  upon  all 
succeeding  times  can  never  be  doubted  or  denied. 
They  are  among  the  sanest  and  the  stablest  of  all 
men,  and  they  hazarded  their  lives  in  the  furtherance 
of  their  mission.  In  the  history  that  gathers  itself 
around  these  two  men  as  its  principal  figures,  the 
natural  and  the  higher-natural  (what  we  call  the 
miraculous)  are  inextricably  interwoven.  It  is  not 
possible  to  sift  and  to  say,  This  is  history  and  that  is 
myth.  The  moment  we  attempt  it,  we  find  ourselves 
excluding  as  myths  parts  that  stand  related  to  the 
rest  as  cause  to  effect,  and  we  find  ourselves  there- 
fore in  the  dilemma  of  accepting,  as  historic,  facts 
and  persons  rendered  by  our  exclusions  more  cause- 
less and  mysterious  than  the  things  we  had  excluded. 
We  are  told  on  every  hand  that  many  a  man  of  scien- 
tific temper  and  training  is  inclined,  now-a-days,  to 
grow  reverent  in  the  presence  of  the  New  Testament 
record  of  the  higher-natural.  Prof.  Ramsay  may  be 
taken  as  an  example.  Speaking  of  *'  the  marvels 
described  in  Acts,"  he  says:  "Twenty  years  ago  I 
found  it  easy  to  dispose  of  them,  but  now-a-days  prob- 
ably not  even  the  youngest  among  us  finds  himself 
able  to  maintain  that  we  have  mastered  the  secrets  of 
nature,  and  determined  the  limits  which  divide  the 
unknown  from  the  impossible.  That  Paul  believed 
himself  to  be  the  recipient  of  direct  revelations  from 
God,  to  be  guided  and  controlled  in  his  plans  by 
direct  interposition  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  to  be  enabled 
by  divine  power  to  move  the  forces  of  nature  in  a 


STUDIES    IN   ACTS  21 

way  that  ordinary  men  cannot,  is  involved  in  this  nar- 
rative. You  must  make  up  your  minds  to  accept  or 
reject  it,  but  you  cannot  cut  out  the  marvelous  from 
the  rest,  nor  can  you  believe  that  either  Paul  or  this 
writer  (Luke)  was  a  mere  victim  of  hallucinations." 
The  historic  verities  of  the  book  of  Acts  and  its 
fixed  dates  have  an  important  bearing  upon  the  writ- 
ings of  Paul  and  their  value  as  witnessing  to  the  truth 
of  the  Gospel  narratives.  Paul  was  a  prisoner  under 
Felix  and  Festus  in  59  and  60.  Before  this  date 
I.  and  II.  Thessalonians,  I.  and  11.  Corinthians, 
Galatians  and  Romans  were  written.  In  all  these 
letters  Paul  testifies  to  the  crucifixion  and  the  resur- 
rection of  Jesus,  and  he  was  not  the  man  to  put  his 
life  to  the  hazard  for  a  myth  or  a  fable  or  a  fiction. 
From  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  to  the  writing  of  the 
Book  of  Romans  is  in  round  numbers  twenty-five 
years;  Galatians  and  I.  and  II.  Corinthians  fall 
within  the  same  period.  Such  books  do  not  spring 
by  mythical  processes  from  hallucination  or  fiction  or 
falsehood  in  so  short  a  time,  and  within  the  memo- 
ries of  multitudes  who  as  eye-witnesses  of  what 
really  did  happen  were  able  and  anxious  to  contra- 
dict them  if  they  were  false.  Paul's  testimony  is 
practically  contemporaneous";  it  is  the  testimony  of 
one  who  was  at  the  first  an  enemy  of  the  cross ;  it 
was  heralded  by  him  boldly  everywhere;  and  upon 
him  through  all  his  ministry  there  beat  the  fierce  his- 
toric light  of  Judaea  in  the  days  of  Josephus,  and  of 
Rome  in  the  times  of   Livy  and   Tacitus.     By  such 


22  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

lines  of  reason  and  research  the  doubters  of  to-day 
are  to  be  convinced,  if  at  all.  "  Never  since  the 
apostolic  age  has  Christianity  stood  so  proudly  erect 
on  her  rendered  reasons  in  the  field  of  historic 
research  as  at  the  present  hour."  It  is  not  enough 
to  say  that  the  historic  basis  of  our  Christian  faith  is 
left  to  us;  it  is  confirmed  to  us  by  critical  and  schol- 
arly research.  It  has  been  said,  with  striking  force, 
that  the  mythical  theory  of  Strauss  died  before  its 
author,  he  having  abandoned  it  before  he  died.  We 
may  rest  assured  that  in  a  similarly  relentless  way 
time  will  weed  out  from  the  field  of  criticism  the 
extremists  and  the  erratics  who  are  bound  to  be  in  it, 
and  that  sober  scholarship  will  unceasingly  protest  to 
us  that  the  apostles  "  did  not  follow  cunningly 
devised  fables  when  they  made  known  to  us  the 
power  and  coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus,"  but  that  they 
were  "eye-witnesses  of  his  majesty." 

One  thing  there  is  in  the  book  of  Acts  abso- 
lutely, and  not  as  an  accidental,  but  as  an  essen- 
tial part  of  it,  and  as  inseparable  from  it  as 
color  and  form  and  perfume  from  the  petals  of 
the  rose.  Eight  times  at  least  the  phrase,  "  The 
Way,"  is  used  distinctively,  and  with  technical  pre- 
cision. The  passages  are  ix.  2;  xvi.  17;  xviii.  25; 
xviii.  26;  xix.  9;  xix.  23;  xxii.  4,  and  xxiv.  22.  In 
the  Revised  Bible  this  phrase  is  several  times 
printed  with  a  capital  W.  The  first  of  them  is 
indicative  of  all  of  them.  "But  Saul,  yet  breath- 
ing out    threatening   and   slaughter  against  the  dis- 


STUDIES    IN   ACTS  23 

ciples  of  the  Lord,  went  unto  the  high  priest,  and 
asked  of  him  letters  to  Damascus  unto  the  syna- 
gogues, that  if  he  found  any  that  were  of  the  Way, 
whether  men  or  women,  he  might  bring  them 
bound  to  Jerusalem."  This  must  refer  to  Christ's 
"new  and  living  Way,"  the  way  of  salvation,  the 
way  by  which  the  thousands  came  to  him  on  the  day 
of  Pentecost,  and  by  which  the  Ethiopian  came,  and 
Cornelius,  and  Lydia  and  her  household,  and  the 
jailer  and  his  household,  and  all  the  others  whose 
conversions  are  at  all  fully  described.  This  Way 
leads  over  the  mountain  of  Calvary  and  down  by  the 
empty  sepulcher,  and  on  down  by  the  waters  of  bap- 
tism, and  so  across  to  the  land  that  is  Christ's.  It 
is  the  preaching  of  the  incarnation,  of  the  crucifixion, 
and  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus ;  it  is  the  faith  be- 
gotten by  this  preaching;  it  is  the  confession  of  this 
faith  in  penitence  and  baptism ;  and  it  includes  the 
promise  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Absolutely  this  is  the 
one  well-worn  highway  that  runs  through  the  whole 
historic  landscape  that  is  presented  to  us  in  this 
book;  it  is  the  Way  of  Atonement,  and  we  have  been 
mournfully  slow  to  find  it  and  walk  in  it. 

On  the  other  hand  there  is  no  systematic  theology 
here.  We  look  in  vain  for  dogmatics  and  counter- 
dogmatics.  This  book  is  delightfully  innocent  of 
isms.  It  is  not  marred  by  a  single  one  of  our  denom- 
inational names.  It  reverently  refrains  from  mis- 
chievous attempts  to  measure  the  immeasurable. 
There  is  iio   theometry  in  it.     Upon  this  point  one  is 


24  STUDIES   IX   ACTS 

constrained   to   quote   with   entire   approval    Joseph 
Parker's  vigorous  words: 

*'I  have  made  no  attempt  to  find  a  formal  theology 
in  apostolic  preaching.  No  such  theology  is  there  to 
be  found.  The  supposed  finding  of  it  anywhere  has 
been  the  heaviest  cross  which  the  Risen  Christ  has 
had  to  carry,  and  the  greatest  hindrance  to  the 
extension  of  his  reign.  Theology  is  as  indefinable  as 
life.  It  admits  of  multitudinous  expression,  and, 
like  inspiration  itself,  must  take  the  color  of  the 
individual  soul  that  receives  it.  As  theology  deals 
with  the  Infinite,  it  cannot  admit  of  complete  and 
final  statement  in  words.  There  is  always  a  nameless 
quantity  beyond.  An  infinite  theology  should  create 
an  infinite  charity,  yet  probably  there  is  less  charity 
in  theology  than  in  any  other  subject  of  human 
thought." 

Here  is  a  church  spiritually  complete  and  doc- 
trinally  invincible,  yet  with  no  formal  creed.  Here 
are  multitudes  of  believers,  at  one  with  God  in 
Christ,  made  so  by  their  faith,  repentance,  and  bap- 
tism, coupled  with  the  promise  of  forgiveness  and 
the  Holy  Spirit,  and  by  the  apostles  left  wisely 
unvexed  with  the  speculative  and  mysterious  side  of 
regeneration.  Here  are  organization  and  enlargement 
proceeding  under  the  rule  of  expediency,  and  no 
harm  comes  to  the  faith.  Forever  fact  is  better 
than  theory;  possession  transcends  speculation,  and 
reality  is  the  soul  of  religion.  This  is  a  book  of  real- 
ities.    The  death  of  Jesus  is  real;  his  resurrection  is 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  25 

real;  his  Lordship  and  Messiahship  are  real;  faith  in 
him  is  real;  repentance  and  baptism  are  real;  the 
promise  of  forgiveness  is  real  and  it  is  realized,  and 
the  atonement  is  real,  because  there  is  a  real  recon- 
ciliation between  the  repentant  child  and  the  forgiv- 
ing Father.  In  this  book  there  is  a  mighty  march  of 
realities;  an  invincible  array  of  events;  a  conquering 
army  of  facts.  The  soul  is  at  first  led  captive  by 
them;  then  it  delights  in  them;  at  last  it  rests  in 
them,  and  finds  that  its  rest  is  rest  in  the  Father  and 
in  his  Son  Jesus  Christ. 

The  author  begs  the  reader  to  accept  this  volume 
for  what  it  purports  to  be,  simply  and  humbly  a 
series  of  meditations  thrown  into  the  form  of  essays, 
with  greater  haste  and  many  more  interruptions  than 
were  to  his  taste.  In  availing  himself  of  the  liberties 
of  the  essayist,  the  author  has  been  enabled  to  avoid 
on  the  one  hand  the  necessary  routine  of  the  com- 
mentator, and  on  the  other  the  conventional  limita- 
tions and  exhortations  of  the  sermonizer. 

The  notes  are  selected  with  reference  to  their  evi- 
dential value,  the  history  and  customs  of  the  time, 
the  constitution  and  life  of  the  first  church,  and, 
above  all,  to  the  elucidation  of  the  more  diflicult 
passages  of  the  text.  Where  the  well-known  com- 
mentaries have  been  quoted,  credit  has  been  given. 
The  plan  imposes  its  own  limitations,  and  it  has 
required  constant  care  and  great  resolution  on  the 
part  of  the  author  to  keep  within  them. 


26  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

Courtesy  demands  that  the  works  that  have  been 
most  helpful  to  the  author  in  the  preparation  of  the 
Essays  should  be  named.  Prof.  B.  A.  Hinsdale's 
compact  and  thoughtful  little  book,  "The  Jewish- 
Christian  Church,"  gave  decided  bent  to  the  author's 
thought  while  he  was  yet  a  college  boy.  Dr.  Philip 
Schaff's  "History  of  the  Apostolic  Church"  has 
been  used  as  an  authority  upon  many  points.  Far- 
rar's  "Life  and  Work  of  St.  Paul,"  a  work  of  won- 
derful eloquence  and  research,  has  been  frequently 
helpful.  Prof.  W.  M.  Ramsay's  recent  critical  work 
entitled  "St.  Paul  the  Traveler  and  the  Roman 
Citizen"  is  indispensable  to  a  thorough  study  of  the 
last  half  of  Acts. 

Should  the  humble  studies  here  presented  incite 
the  reader  to  a  closer,  wiser  and  more  reverent 
reading  of  this  key-book  of  the  New  Testament,  and 
should  it  bring  him  into  a  sweeter  relationship  to 
the  Church  of  Christ,  his  present  "  Spirit-bearing 
body"  in  the  world,  its  object  will  be  attained  and 
its  mission  fulfilled. 


I. 

THE    FIRST   SERMON    AFTER    THE   ASCENSION 


"I  say  the  pulpit  (in  the  sober  use 

Of  its  legitimate,  peculiar  powers) 

Must  stand  acknowledged  while  the  world  shall  stand, 

The  most  important  and  effectual  guard, 

Support  and  ornament  of  virtue's  cause. 

There  stands  the  messenger  of  truth.    There  stands 

The  legate  of  the  skies,  his  theme  divine, 

His  office  sacred,  his  credentials  clear; 

By  him  the  violated  law  speaks  out 

Its  thunders,  and  by  him,  in  strains  as  sweet 

As  angels  use,  the  Gospel  whispers  peace." 

—Cowper, 

28 


THE  FIRST  SERMON  AFTER  THE  ASCENSION. 

"Therefore,  let  all  the  house  of  Israel  know  assuredly  that  God 
hath  made  that  same  Jesus,  whom  ye  have  crucified,  both  Lord  and 
Christ."— Acts  ii.  36. 

The  second  chapter  of  The  Acts  is  vital.  The 
Holy  Spirit  is  in  it.  It  throbs  with  passionate  elo- 
quence. It  has  the  thrill  of  a  divine  logic.  It 
reaches  a  conclusion  which  immediately  becomes  a 
conviction.  There  ring  through  it  the  cries  of  thou- 
sands of  penitent  souls.  It  gives  the  divine  response 
to  these  cries  in  its  command  to  -obedience  and  its 
promise  of  forgiveness.  It  heralds  thov/hope  of  sal- 
vation to  all  that  are  afar  off,  and  to  the  children's 
children  of  those  who  on  that  Pentecost  day  became 
the  anointed  of  The  Anointed.  It  holds  the  history 
of  the  beginning  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  and  reveals 
to  us  in  the  apostolic  steadfastness,  and  in  the 
wholly  fraternal  relations  of  the  first  confessors,  the 
power  of  the  new,  new  story  to  regenerate  men  and 
transform  society. 

There  are  few  chapters  in  the  Bible  comparable  to 
this  in  point  of  historic  and  spiritual  values.  In 
Genesis  we  are  told  of  the  creation  of  man ;  here  is 
the  plan  of  his  re-creation.  In  Exodus  we  still  hear 
the  thunders  of  Sinai  giving  forth  a  law  under  which 

29 


30  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

a   mob   of   people,  but  yesterday  out   of   slavery,  is 
organized  into  an  army  and  a  nation;  here  the  church 
of  the   crucified   but   living   and  reigning   Christ  is 
born.     In  the  fifty-third  chapter  of  Isaiah,  Messianic 
prophecy  reaches  its  loftiest  strains  and  its  sweetest 
pathos;   in  this  chapter  that  prophecy  becomes  his- 
tory, and  the  One  from  whom  we  "hid  as  it  were  our 
faces,"  stands  before   us   in  resurrection   regnancy, 
commanding    us    to    look   upon   him    in   everlasting 
acknowledgment.     The  Apostle  Paul's  great  chapter 
on  the  resurrection   is   anticipated    by  the  Apostle 
Peter's   daring,    impulsive,    irresistible   testimony  in 
this  sermon.     The  thirteenth  chapter  of  I.  Corinth- 
ians teaches  no  higher  form  of  love  than  is  tacitly 
taught  in  this,  the  crucified  One  offering  an  abundant 
pardon  to  his  murderers.     The  last  chapter  of  Mat- 
thew, the  last  of  Mark,  and  the  last  of  Luke,  con- 
tains, each,  the  risen  Savior's  last   command,  "Go, 
teach  all  nations,  baptizing  them  in  the  name  of  the 
Father,    and   of   the   Son,   and   of   the   Holy   Spirit, 
teaching  them  to   observe   all   things   whatsoever  I 
have  commanded  you;"  this  contains  the  execution 
of  that  commission.     It  is  in  this  chapter  that  we  are 
come — "Unto   Mount  Sion,  and   to  the   city  of  the 
living  God,  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  and  to  an  innu- 
merable company  of  angels,  to  the  general  assembly 
and  church  of  the  Firstborn,  which  are  written  in 
heaven,  and  to  God,  the  judge   of   all,  and   to  the 
spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect,  and  to  Jesus,  the 
mediator  of  the  new  covenant,  and  to  the  blood  of 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS  31 

Sprinkling  that  speaketh  better  things  than  that  of 
Abel." 

It  was  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  30,  on  a  Sunday,  on 
a  May  day,  probably  the  27th,  that  the  miracle  of 
Pentecost  took  place.  Forty  days  after  his  resurrec- 
tion Jesus  tarried  visibly  upon  earth,  giving  to  his 
chosen  witnesses  "many  infallible  proofs"  of  his  res- 
urrection, and  therefore  of  his  Messiahship.  There 
came  the  last  solemn  meeting  with  him,  when  with 
pitiful  yearning  for  their  ancient  theocracy  they 
asked  of  him  this  impertinent  question:  "Lord, 
wilt  thou  at  this  time  restore  again  the  kingdom  to 
Israel?"  This,  then,  was  their  final,  political,  un- 
spiritual  praj^er!  It  is  a  startling  indication  of  the 
antagonism  between  their  ideals  and  the  Master's 
own  of  his  Messianic  kingdom.  Their  tuition  under 
Jesus,  his  persistent  refusal  to  wear  any  crown  save 
one  of  thorns,  his  death,  his  resurrection,  had  failed 
to  disabuse  their  minds  of  that  ingrained  nationalism 
which,  cherished  on  the  part  of  the  Jews  as  a  nation, 
was  ultimately  their  ruin.  Christ's  answer  to  this  ill- 
timed  prayer  was  indirect.  He  knew  that  one  crown- 
ing miracle  still  was  needed  to  "guide  them  into  all 
truth."  Previously  he  had  promised  them  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  had  indicated  the  office  thereof  in  saying, 
"He  shall  glorify  me;  for  he  shall  receive  of  mine, 
and  shall  show  it  unto  you."  His  present  answer  in- 
cludes a  command,  a  rebuke,  and  a  reference  to  his 
former  promise.  "It  is  not  for  you  to  know  the 
times  or  the  seasons  that  the  Father  hath  put  in  his 


32  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

own  power.  But  ye  shall  receive  power  after  that 
the  Holy  Spirit  is  come  upon  you;  and  ye  shall  be 
witnesses  unto  me  both  in  Jerusalem,  and  in  Judaea, 
and  in  Samaria,  and  unto  the  uttermost  parts  of  the 
earth."  These  are  his  last  words  upon  earth,  and 
they  are  a  Godlike  answer  to  a  very  human  question. 
Their  poor  plans  of  over-matching  Caesar  with  "iron 
and  blood"  were  limited  to  the  "kingdom  of 
Israel;"  his  matchless  plan  of  over-matching  all  souls 
with  truth  and  love  found  its  boundaries  only  in  "the 
uttermost  parts  of  the  earth." 

One  lesson  at  least  his  disciples  had  learned :  they 
could  wait.  They  returned  from  the  scene  of  the 
Ascension,  and  tarried  in  the  city  of  Jerusalem  "till 
they  were  endued  with  power  from  on  high." 

On  the  day  of  Pentecost  the  Savior's  promise  was 
fulfilled.  "There  came  from  heaven  a  sound  as  of  a 
rushing,  mighty  wind,  and  it  filled  all  the  house 
where  they  were  sitting.  And  there  appeared  unto 
them  cloven  tongues  as  of  fire,  and  it  sat  upon  each 
of  them,  and  they  were  all  filled  with  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  began  to  speak  with  other  tongues  as  the 
Spirit  gave  them  utterance."  This  was  their  endue- 
ment. 

Guided,  empowered  thus,  the  Apostle  Peter  gave 
forth  the  greatest  sermon  ever  preached.  The  names 
of  the  most  notable  preachers,  and  the  immortal 
achievements  of  their  "tongues  of  fire"  are  not 
wanting  to  memory  when  this  assertion  is  made — 
Elijah,    Hosea,    Amos,    Isaiah,     Jeremiah,    Ezekiel, 


STUDIES    IN   ACTS  33 

Ezra,  John  the  Baptist,  Paul,  Chrysostom,  Savon- 
arola, Luther,  Whitefield,  Edwards,  Spurgeon,  and 
many  another,  all  of  whose  names  thrill  us  more  than 
those  of  kings  and  their  counselors.  There  is  one 
sermon  never  to  be  forgotten  in  such  an  estimate  as 
we  are  attempting,  and  the  name  of  the  preacher  of 
it  is  to  be  mentioned  always  reverently,  and  apart 
from  any  possible  roll  of  names  that  are  noblest 
among  men.  In  its  ethical  and  spiritual  values  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  confessedly  supreme.  But 
its  author  does  not  present  it  as  a  completion.  It  is 
rather  an  inception.  Not  till  Jesus  bowed  his  head 
in  death,  saying,  as  he  did  so,  "It  is  finished,"  was 
that  sermon  finished.  In  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
the  death  of  Jesus  is  not  foretold;  there  is  no  hint  of 
his  resurrection;  the  atonement  is  not  taught.  In 
these  points  it  is  surpassed  by  the  sermon  of  Peter  on 
that  first  Pentecost  after  the  ascension.  It  was  given 
to  the  apostle  to  ieomplete  what  the  Master  had 
begun,  or,  rather,  fully  to  declare  the  completions 
revealed  in  the  living,  dying,  and  rising  of  the  Mas- 
ter. "Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  He  that  believ- 
eth  on  me,  the  works  that  I  do  shall  he  do  also;  and 
greater  works  than  these  shall  he  do,  because  I  go 
unto  my  Father."  "Because  I  go  unto  my  Father" 
— indicative  of  a  finished  work,  a  foundation  in  its 
completion,  whereupon  they,  his  disciples,  were  to 
build  the  house  unto  completion. 
Peter's    sermon   was,   therefore,   to   all   preceding 

preachers   an     impossibility.     To    the     Savior    him- 
3 


34  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

self  it  would  have  been  an  anachronism.  Its  repe- 
tition or  its  equal  is  likewise  an  impossibility  to 
all  succeeding  jjreachers,  for  the  occasion,  the  inspi- 
ration and  the  results  of  Pentecost  can  never  be 
duplicated. 

Four  factors  are  essential  to  a  great  sermon.     In 
*    /the  first  place  there  must  be  a  great  occasion.     This 
Pentecost  occasion  had  been  in  preparation  through 
the    whole    of    the    nineteen   Abrahamic    centuries. 
God  had  this  day  in  view  when  he  said  to  Abraham, 
*'  In  thee  and  in  thy  seed  shall  all  the  nations  of  the 
€arth  be  blessed."     Sinai,  with  all  that  it  means,  the 
theocracy  ai;id  all  of  its  history,  the  prophecy,  poetry 
and  tragedy  of  the  Jews  through  thirty  generations, 
the  temple  worship  with  its  endless  lineage  of  priests 
and  high  priests,  with  its  altars  and  victims  and  sol- 
emn mimicry  of  types  and  shadows,  the  majestic  roll 
of  Hebrew  prophets  beginning  with  Moses  and  end- 
ing  with  John   the  Baptist,    the   whole   of   Hebrew 
history  from  the  golden  age  of  Solomon  to  the  awful 
days  of   the   Maccabees, — all,  all  is  but  preparation 
for  the  completions  that  were  preached  on  Pentecost. 
John  the  Baptist  is  but  the  last  of  the  many  fore- 
runners of  Christ.     His  cry,  ''Repent,  for  the  king- 
dom  of    heaven  is   at   hand,"  is  the  summary   and 
conclusion,  terse  and   terrible,  in  the  very  presence 
of  the   Christ,  of  the  law   and    the   prophets  from 
Moses   to   Malachi.     Standing  as   the  representative 
not  alone   of  Elijah,  but  of  Isaiah  as  well,  and  of 
Jeremiah,   and   Ezekiel,    and    Daniel,    and    the   rest 


STUDIES    IN   ACTS  35 

of  Christ's  great-souled  forerunners,  standing  as  the 
last  old  covenant  prophet  and  the  best  product 
of  a  mighty  ancestr}^  "the  greatest  among  them 
that  are  born  of  women,"  he  introduces  the  Christ, 
saying,  "Behold  the  lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away 
the  sin  of  the  world."  This  man  and  all  that  for 
which  he  stands  in  his  incompleteness — "the  least  in 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  greater  than  he  " — is  like- 
wise a  factor  in  the  preparation  for  the  completions 
of  Pentecost. 

But,  as  already  intimated,  Christ  himself  is  the 
essential  and  the  immediate  preparation  for  that 
event.  The  sermon  goes  back  and  looks  into  the 
face  of  prophecy,  but  only  that  it  maiy  find  Christ 
there.  The  sixteenth  Psalm  is  quoted,  and  now  for 
the  first  time  the  veil  is  lifted  from  it,  for  only  in  the 
light  of  the  crucifixion  and  the  resurrection  can  the 
face  of  Moses,  and  of  David,  be  unveiled.  "Men 
and  brethren,  let  me  freely  speak  to  you  of  the  patri- 
arch David,  that  he  is  both  dead  and  buried,  and  his 
sepulcher  is  with  us  unto  this  day.  Therefore  being 
a  prophet,  and  knowing  that  God  had  sworn  with  an 
oath  to  him,  that  of  the  fruit  of  his  loins,  accordin^^^ 
to  the  flesh,  he  would  raise  up  Christ  to  sit  on  his 
throne;  he  seeing  this  before,  spake  of  the  resurrec- 
tion of  Christ,  that  his  soul  was  not  left  in  hell  (the 
world  of  the  dead)  neither  his  flesh  did  see  cor- 
ruption.'* 

Christ  in  prophecy  meets  Christ  in  fact.  "  Ye  men 
of  Israel,  hear  these   words;    Jesus   of   Nazareth,  a 


36  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

man   approved  of   God  among  you  by  miracles  and 
wonders   and   signs,  which   God  did   by   him   in  the 
midst  of  you,  as  ye  yourselves  also  know:    him,  being 
delivered  by  the  determinate  counsel  and  foreknowl- 
edge of   God,  ye  have  taken,  and   by  wicked  hands 
have  crucified  and  slain:  whom  God  hath  raised  up, 
having  loosed  the  pains  of  death,  because  it  was  not 
possible  that  he  should  be  holden  of  it."     The  life  of 
Jesus,  therefore,  and  all  that  was  unique  in  it;  his 
teaching,  his  miracles,  his  oneness   with  himself   in 
word  and  deed,  his  death,  being  at  once  the  necessary 
sequel   and  climax   to  his  life,  and   his  resurrection 
together  with  the  infallible  proofs  of  it,  all,  all  is  in 
the  line  of  preparation  for  the  Pentecost  occasion. 
If  the  crucifixion  may  be  likened  to  a  mighty  storm- 
cloud    that    passed    in    fury,    raining     divine    blood 
upon   the   earth,  the   resurrection   may   be   similarly 
likened  to  the   indescribable  glory  of  the  sun,  when, 
as  though  he  had  conquered  the  storm,  he  turns  to 
paint   upon  its   darkest   breast  his  brightest  boAV   of 
promised   peace.     The   terror   and   the  glory  of  the 
crucifixion   and  the  resurrection   were   fresh   in  the 
minds  of  myriads  of  the  people  of  Judaea,  and  their 
capital  city  had  not  yet  recovered  from  the  astonish- 
ment of  the  empty  sepulcher  when  the  day  of  Pente- 
cost  had   fully   come.      The   thousands   of    pilgrims 
who  gathered  from  many  lands  to  keep  the  feast  in 
the  Holy  City  could  not  have  been  ignorant  of  what 
had  happened,  for  so  early  as  the  day  of  the  resur- 
rection it  was  the  topic  of  conversation  by  the  way- 


STUDIES    IN   ACTS  37 

side,  and  whoever  had  not  heard  it  was  immediately 
taken  for  a  stranger.  "  These  things  were  not  done 
in  a  corner." 

In  addition  to  all  this,  and  the  last  circumstance  to 
be  named  as  contributing  to  the  occasion,  was  the 
harvest  feast  itself,  the  second  of  the  three  great  festi- 
vals of  the  Jews.  Worshiping  strangers  were  present 
from  many  lands,  and  the  city  and  the  temple  courts 
were  thronged  with  devout  and  expectant  crowds. 
Did  they  remember  the  young  Galilean  who  had 
twice  cleansed  the  tempi  e  of  its  company  of  monopo- 
listic thieves,  scourging  them,  and  overthrowing  their 
money  tables?  Did  they  recall  the  terrible  energy 
of  his  words,  and  his  look  of  divine  indignation  as  he 
said,  "Take  these  things  hence;  make  not  my  Fath- 
er's house  a  house  of  merchandise? "  Did  these 
recollections  connect  themselves  with  others  fresher 
in  mind  of  the  dreadful  noonday  darkness  that  boded 
no  good  of  his  crucifixion,  of  the  earthquake  and  the 
rending  of  the  temple  veil,  and  above  all  of  his  resur- 
rection, quiet,  divine,  and  terrible  defiance  as  it  was 
of  Jewish  malignity  and  Roman  power?  Did  throngs 
of  curious  awe-struck  people  go  now  to  gaze  in  at  the 
empty  sepulcher,  and  now  upon  the  torn  veil  of  the 
temple?  Had  the  story  of  his  appearances  and  dis- 
appearances gotten  abroad,  and  were  there  hopes 
and  fears  on  the  part  of  friends  and  foes?  Had  he 
not  promised  that  he  would  come  again,  and  had  he 
not  threatened  that  of  their  temple  not  one  stone 
should    be   left    upon  another   that  should  not    be 


38  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

thrown  down?  One  may  not  unwisely  guess  that 
there  were  forebodings  of  evil  in  many  a  heart,  that 
there  was  expectancy  on  the  part  of  all,  and  that 
when  his  disciples  began  to  speak  miraculously 
amidst  the  throngs  in  the  temple  courts  there  was 
intense  excitement.  It  was  a  great  occasion  for 
which  the  history  of  centuries,  and  the  tragedy  of 
history,  which  to  the  worshipers  there  was  the 
tragedy  of  the  season,  had  prepared  the  way.  Such 
preparations,  such  conditions,  such  an  occasion  can 
never  return.  All  is  unique. 
1,  ,/  The  second  essential  to  a  great  sermon  is  a  great 
preacher.  No  man  preaches  taller  than  he  is.  It  is 
not  the  office  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  make  suddenly 
and  for  the  occasion  giants  of  pigmies,  sages  of 
clowns,  prophets  of  platform  jobbers,  or  heroes  of 
political  cravens.  From  the  pulpit  wag,  the  sen- 
sationalist of  the  hour,  the  Cheap-John  comic  draw- 
ing card,  you  may  expect  smirks,  jokes,  the  puns  of 
last  year's  almanac,  the  slang  of  the  street,  the  mere 
plausible  tall-talk  for  which  the  multitudes  having 
itching  ears  make  constant  demands.  Our  colleges 
and  theological  seminaries  would  perform  a  valuable 
service  to  mankind  if  they  would  make  a  business, 
metaphorically  speaking,  of  strangling  pulpit  wags  in 
embryo.  The  prostitution  of  the  pulpit  is  not  the 
least  of  the  sins  for  which  the  trifler  in  divine  things, 
the  small  dogmatic  Doctor  of  Divinity,  the  evan- 
gelistic buffoon,  and  the  mere  political  huckster  of 
denominational  eccentricities,  must  sometime  answer. 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  39 

But  the  pulpit  and  the  sermon,  as  looked  upon  by 
the  great  and  serious  soul,  present  no  opportunity 
for  trifling.  The  Apostle  Paul  said,  ''  We  are  the 
savour  of  death  unto  death,  and  of  life  unto  life. 
Who  is  suflacient  for  these  things?  For  we  are  not 
as  many  who  corrupt  the  word  of  God,  but  as  of  sin- 
cerity, as  of  God,  in  the  sight  of  God  speak  we  in 
Christ."  Chrysostom,  already  in  his  youth  an  accom- 
plished rhetorician,  rushed  away  and  spent  six  years 
in  lonesome  study  and  devout  meditation  before  he 
consented  to  enter  the  pulpit.  Savonarola  kindled 
his  soul  from  the  fires  of  Old  Testament  prophecy, 
and  from  his  pulpit  kindled  the  fires  of  revolution  in 
Florence.  With  him  preaching  was  so  serious  a  busi- 
ness that  when  the  papal  agents  sought  to  purchase 
his  conscience  with  a  cardinal's  cap  he  merely  said 
that  he  expected  a  cap  some  day  red  with  his  own 
blood.  Jonathan  Edwards  "  lived,  an  absorbed  spirit, 
in  the  study.  .  .  .  He  was  a  man  of  faith  and 
prayer,  a  man  who  handled  the  things  that  are  unseen 
as  things  really  seen  and  felt;  a  mind  shining  through 
a  beautiful  face,  .  .  .  terribly  in  earnest,  with  a 
dreadful  sense  that  sin  was  sin,  Satan,  Satan,  and 
Christ,  Christ."  The  man,  the  real  man  in  the 
pulpit  does  realize  that, 

"There  he  stands 
The  legate  of  the  skies,  his  theme  divine, 
His  ofiQce  sacred,  his  credentials  clear. 
By  him,  the  violated  law  speaks  out  its  thunders, 
And  by  him,  in  strains  as  sweet  as  angels  use. 
The  Gospel  whispers  peace." 


40  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

Suited  to  the  greatness  of  the  Pentecost  occasion 
there  was  a  great  preacher.  The  Apostle  Peter  was 
no  longer  "an  ignorant  fisherman,"  if  he  ever  was 
that.  He  had  had  three  years  or  more  under  this 
world's  Master  of  masters,  he  had  had  spiritual 
experiences  that  were  worth  infinitely  more  to  him 
than  all  the  possible  curricula  of  legalistic  and  rab- 
binical lore  of  his  time,  and  above  all  else  he  was 
greatly  and  especially  inspired  for  this  day's  work. 
Three  years  with  Jesus,  going  about  and  doing  good, 
hearing,  seeing,  practicing,  puzzled,  asking  questions, 
grandly  confessing  Christ,  and,  from  his  standpoint 
as  grandly  rebuking  him;  as  grandly  also,  still  from 
his  standpoint,  out  of  crushed  hopes  and  a  broken 
heart,  denying  him;  and  after  all  compelled  to  read 
the  meaning  of  these  experiences  in  the  light  of  the 
resurrection,  and  for  that  purpose  endued  with  and 
guided  by  the  Holy  Spirit — this  is  the  great  man, 
greatly  schooled,  absolutely  subdued,  totally  regen- 
erated, positively  inspired,  who  stands  up  match- 
lessly equipped  for  this  matchless  occasion. 
,  The  third  essential  to  a  great  sermon  is  a  great 
"^  theme.  The  Spirit  does  not  go  forth  with  the  sound 
as  of  a  rushing,  mighty  wind,  nor  do  the  cloven 
tongues  of  fire  appear  for  the  declaration  of  trifles. 
Platitudes  and  attitudes  are  not  the  secret  of  heart- 
moving  power.  The  meanness  of  the  theme  belittles 
the  man  and  his  pulpit;  the  grandeur  of  the  theme 
exalts  him  and  it.  Out  of  the  presumable  science, 
philosophy,  or  politics  of  the  day,  there  may  come 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS  41 

forth  any  amount  of  pulpit  oration,  no  doubt,  rang- 
ing all  the  way  from  twaddle  to  gabble,  and  from 
gabble  to  fustian,  and  the  twaddle  and  gabble  and 
fustian  may,  indeed,  have  some  seasoning  of  the  Gos- 
pel in  high,  homeopathic  solution;  but  are  we  to  call 
this  preaching?  Jesus  preached  about  so  slight  a 
thing  as  a  lost  coin,  and  a  lost  sheep,  but  his  real 
theme  was  a  lost  soul,  and  out  of  that  theme  there 
grew  the  pearl  of  his  parables,  the  one  doubly  and 
properly  named  "The  Parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son," 
"The  Parable  of  Fatherly  Love."  The  themes  of 
Jesus  are  simple,  but  they  are  sublime  ere  he  leaves 
them,  for  into  the  commonplaces  of  earth  he  pours 
the  spiritual  content  of  faith  and  hope  and  love,  of 
repentance  and  forgiveness  and  restoration,  and  he 
concludes  by  setting  the  whole  of  it  in  the  perspec- 
tive of  endless  days. 

How  can  one  fitly  speak  of  the  Apostle  Peter's 
Pentecost  theme!  It  is  the  theme  of  mankind, 
of  the  angels,  and  of  the  ages.  It  is  the  theme  of 
prophecy  preceding,  and  history  succeeding,  a  certain 
date.  Once  it  was  the  theme  of  types  and  shadows 
embodied  in  stately  forms  of  ritualistic  worship;  as 
the  shadows  give  place  to  substance,  their  theme  be- 
comes the  exclusive  one  of  apostles,  martyrs,  heroes 
and  reformers,  whose  names  are  without  number.  It 
is  still  the  theme,  and  shall  ever  be,  of  all  preachers 
that  are  preachers,  of  all  poets  that  are  poets,  of  all 
martyrs   and   prophets   and   reformers    and   philoso- 


42  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

phers  who  are  genuinely  so,  and  not  the  mere  effigies 
of  their  respective  classes^ 

When  Whittier  would  overreach  himself  in  the 
production  of  his  finest  ode,  he  can  choose  no  theme 
but  the  Christ,  *'Our  Master."  In  his  "In  Memo- 
riam,"  Tennyson's  friend,  whom  he  tenderly  remem- 
bers and  fondly  hopes  again  to  meet,  is  less  his  theme 
than  the  Christ,  through  faith  in  whom  he  lifts  up 
his  hopes  in  poetic  forms,  till  the  poem  becomes  an 
anthem  and  a  sermon,  beginning  with 

"Strong  Son  of  God,  immortal  Love, 
Whom  we,  that  have  not  seen  thy  face, 
By  faith  and  faith  alone  embrace, 
Believing  where  we  cannot  prove." 

And  closing  with 

"That  God  which  ever  lives  and  loves, 
One  God,  one  law,  one  element, 
And  one  far  off,  divine  event, 
To  which  the  whole  creation  moves  J' 

Our  English  epic,  *' Paradise  Lost,"  cannot  so 
much  as  get  itself  introduced  by  its  great  author 
without  the  most  fervent  expression  of  recovery 
through  Christ.  Disobedience,  death,  woe,  loss  of 
Eden,  are  only — 

"Till  one  greater  Man 
Restore  us,  and  regain  the  blissful  seat." 

It  has  been  said  there  is  no  poetry  without  God. 
Since  *'God  was  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  to 
himself,"  let  it  be  said  quite  as  positively,  there  is  no 
poetry  without  Christ.     And  if  no  poetry,  then  also 


STUDIES    IN   ACTS  43 

no  philosophy,  no  history,  no  highest  life  of  any  sort. 

Henry  B.  Smith,  formerly  of  Union  Theological 
Seminary,  says,  "God  in  Christ,  reconciling  the 
world  unto  himself,  is  the  burden  of  the  Bible,  and  it 
is  also  the  burden  of  history."  In  this  connection  he 
quotes  the  great  Swiss  historian,  John  Von  Miiller, 
who  gives  the  results  of  his  life-long  labors,  extracted 
from  1,733  authors,  in  the  striking  confession,  that 
"Christ  is  the  key  to  the  history  of  the  world.  Not 
only  does  all  harmonize  with  the  mission  of  Christ, 
all  is  subordinated  to  it.  When  I  saw  this,"  he 
continues,  "it  was  to  me  as  wonderful  and  surprising 
as  the  light  which  Paul  saw  on  the  way  to  Damascus, 
the  fulfillment  of  all  hopes,  the  completion  of  all 
philosophy,  the  key  to  all  the  apparent  contradictions 
of  the  physical  and  moral  world;  here  is  life  and  im- 
mortality. I  marvel  not  at  miracles;  a  far  greater 
miracle  has  been  reserved  for  our  times,  the  spectacle 
of  the  connection  of  all  human  events  in  the  estab- 
lishment and  preservation  of  the  doctrine  of  Christ." 

Christ  was  the  Apostle  Peter's  theme  on  the  day  of 
Pentecost.  Christ,  of  whom  Herder  has  said,  "He  is 
the  realized  ideal  of  humanity;"  whom  Carlyle  calls, 
"Our  divinest  symbol,  a  symbol  of  quite  perennial, 
infinite  character;"  of  whom  Dorner  says,  "He  is  the 
perfect  revelation  of  God,  and  at  the  same  time  the 
perfection  of  humanity;"  of  whose  life  Schaff  says, 
**It  is  the  moral  miracle  of  history;" — Christ,  at 
whose  feet,  inerrant,  and  wounded,  as  at  tiie  feet  of 


44  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

the  Master  supreme,  the  greatest  masters  of  earth 
unanimously,  reverently  bow. 

Note  the  argument  of  the  sermon.  Jesus  of 
Nazareth,  a  man  approved  of  God  by  miracles  and 
wonders  and  signs;  delivered  by  the  counsel  of  God, 
and  slain  by  wicked  hands ;  by  God  raised  from  the 
dead,  exalted,  seated  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Most 
High  till  his  foes  are  his  footstool;  and,  finally,  giver 
of  the  Holy  Spirit, — these  are  the  mighty  passages 
of  directly  inspired,  impetuous,  daring,  apostolic  tes- 
timony. 

The  climax,  the  conclusion,  the  eifective,  heart- 
piercing  appeal  of  the  sermon,  are  all  reached  in  the 
words  that  are  chosen  to  stand  as  the  caption  of 
^.this  essay:  '* Therefore,  let  all  the  house  of  Israel 
know  assuredly  that  God  hath  made  that  same  Jesus, 
whom  ye  have  crucified,  both  Lord  and  Christ.'' 
There  is  no  other  theme,  there  is  no  other  conclu- 
sion for  the  pulpit.  The  platform,  the  forum,  the 
academic  chair,  may  deal  with  inferior  themes,  and 
reach  other,  minor  conclusions,  but  not  the  pulpit. 
The  moment  the  pulpit  undertakes  to  present  or 
represent  any  other  than  Christ,  or  to  enforce  truth 
other  than  and  inferior  to  this,  namely,  that  God 
hath  made  him  Lord  and  Christ,  that  moment  the 
pulpit  ceases  to  be  the  pulpit,  and  becomes  by  neces- 
sity something  other,  but  not  better.  Forever  and 
forever  the  Christological  preacher,  and  therefore 
also  the  evangelistic  one,  must  find  in  this  sermon 
his  model.     Surely  it  is  with  accurate,  homiletic  in- 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  45 

stinct  that  Joseph  Parker  has  said,  "As  a  matter  of 
fact,  the  Apostle  Peter  preached  the  only  sermon 
that  any  Christian  minister  is  ever  at  liberty  to 
preach.  This  discourse  of  Peter's  is  not  nineteen 
centuries  old.  This  is  the  model  sermon.  This  is 
the  evangelistic  doctrine." 

The     occasion     was     unique.      To    match    it    the 
preacher  was   especially   chosen,  peculiarly  trained, 
divinely-inspired.     His  theme  was  Christ.     One  thing 
remains  to   make   the   sermon  great ;    its  effect   was  ^ 
great. 

Three  thousand  were  "pricked  in  the  heart;" 
three  thousand  became  inquirers,  and  were  told 
explicitly  what  to  do;  they  did  it  exactly.  They 
received  the  promise  of  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  in  their  rebirth  the  church  of  Christ  was  born. 
Significant  beyond  the  fact  that  three  thousand  souls 
were  turned  to  Christ  is  the  question  that  they  asked, 
and  the  answer  it  received.  They  have  passed  away 
from  earth,  but  their  question  abides;  it  is  the  soul- 
cry  of  humanity,  "  Men  and  brethren,  what  shall  we 
do?  "  And  the  answer  to  it,  given  under  such  cir- 
cumstances, and  with  such  sanctions,  must  be  an 
abiding  answer.  If  the  pulpit  is  unique,  if  its  theme 
is  unique,  if  its  peculiar  province  is  to  call  forth  this 
question,  then  shall  not  its  answer  be  likewise 
unique,  and  shall  it  not  be  explicit,  and  forever 
imperative?  "Repent  and  be  baptized,  everyone  of 
you,  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  for  the  remission  of 
sins,  and    ye    shall    receive    the    gift  of    the    Holy 


46  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

Spirit."  Repentance!  Baptism!  Remission  I  the 
Holy  Spirit! — here  is  the  atonement!  "  God  was  in 
Christ  reconciling  the  world  to  himself,"  and  this 
is  the  way  reconciliation  began  on  that  first  Pen- 
tecost after  the. ascension,  in  the  persons  of  thrice 
a  thousand  souls. 

This  sermon  is  great  in  that  it  completely  presents 
the  Gospel  in  its  completion. 

The  manner  of  it  is  a  model,  the  Apostle  Peter 
having  been  greatly  schooled  and  greatly  inspired 
for  its  delivery. 

It  is  great  in  its  exclusion  of  things  irrelevant. 
Not  one  word  is  said  about  restoring  the  kingdom 
again  to  Israel,  though  this  was  the  last  thought 
uppermost  with  the  disciples  at  the  moment  of 
Christ's  ascension. 

^"It  is  Christological  rather  than  theological,  and 
inductive  rather  than  deductive.  In  a  very  great 
manner  it  is  barren,  therefore,  of  metaphysics,  the- 
ories, dogmas,  and  the  general  guess-work  impu- 
dently conceived  and  dogmatically  enforced  of  all 
merely  rationalistic,  because  merely  syllogistic,  and 
therefore  merely  logic-chopped  theology. 

It  is  great  in  presenting  Christ  as  he  presented 
himself,  "Approved  of  God  by  miracles  and  signs 
and  wonders  which  God  did  by  him;"  crucified, 
buried,  risen,  exalted,  expectant,  regnant,  claiming 
the  world  at  the  price  of  his  blood. 

It  is  great  in  moving  the  hearts  of  the  people  as 
fields  of  grain  are  shaken  by  the  wind.     At  once  to 


STUDIES    IN   ACTS  47 

enlighten  the  mind,  to  touch  the  heart,  and  to  bend 
man's  stubborn  will  before  God's  will  till  cries  for 
mercy  are  forthcoming  is  the  most  majestic  effect  of 
speech. 

It  is  great  in  its  revelation  of  the  new  way  of 
access  to  God  "  through  the  veil,  that  is  to  say,  his 
flesh,"  commanding  that  "the  heart  be  sprinkled 
from  an  evil  conscience,  and  the  body  washed  with 
pure  water." 

It  is  great  in  its  promise  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  in 
its  extension  of  that  promise  to  "all  that  are  afar 
off."     It  is  the  greatest  sermon  ever  preached. 


II. 

THE   FIRST    CHURCH 


"Christ  also  loved  .the  church,  and  gave  himself  for  it,  that  he 
might  sanctify  and  cleanse  it  with  the  washing  of  water  by  the 
word,  that  he  might  present  it  to  himself  a  glorious  church,  not 
having  spot  or  wrinkle,  or  any  such  thing ;  but  that  it  should  be 
holy  and  without  blemish." — Eph.  v.  25-27. 

"The  church  is  no  other  than  the  outward,  visible  representation 
of  the  inward  communion  of  believers  with  the  Redeemer  and  with 
one  another." — Neancler. 

"Over  against   the  divisions  of  race  and  continent   the  Church 

raises  still  its  witness  to  the  possibility  of  a  universal  brotherhood  ; 

over  against  despair  and  dispersion  it  speaks  of  faith  and  the  unity 

of   knowledge;    over   against    pessimism    it    lifts    up  a    perpetual 

Eucharist." — Rev.  W.  Lock. 

50 


II. 

THE  FIRST  CHURCH. 

"Then  they  that  gladly  received  his  word  were  baptized;  and  the 
same  day  there  were  added  unto  them  about  tliree  thousand  souls. " 
—Acts  it  41. 

The  word  received  was  the  conclusion  of  the  Apos- 
tle Peter's  sermon  and  his  answer  to  the  inquirers' 
question.  This  was  the  conclusion:  "Let  all  the 
house  of  Israel  know  assuredly,  that  God  hath  made 
that  same  Jesus,  whom  ye  have  crucified,  both  Lord 
and  Christ."  This  was  the  answer  to  the  question: 
*'Kepent,  and  be  baptized  every  one  of  you  in  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ  for  the  remission  of  sins,  and 
ye  shall  receive  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit."  This 
conclusion  and  this  answer  were  respectively  creed 
and  charter  of  the  new-born  church.  They  "  received 
his  word;"  that  is,  they  accepted  the  creed  and  com- 
plied with  the  conditions  of  the  charter.  A  great 
change  had  come  over  them  in  the  few  weeks  since 
they  clamored  for  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus,  and 
hooted  around  his  cross,  and  wagged  their  heads  in 
mockery  while  he  expired  in  majesty.  The  miracle 
of  the  tongues  and  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
bringing  proof  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus,  had 
broken  up  the  fountains  of  the  great  deep  in  the 
hearts   of  the   hitherto   impenitent   multitudes,   and 

51 


52  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

many  doors  flew  open  now  where  the  Master  himself 
had  stood  knocking  in  vain.  They  "were  baptized;" 
that  is,  they  acknowledged  their  faith  in  Christ 
openly;  they  submitted,  in  a  figure,  to  die  with  him 
that  they  might  rise  with  him;  they  took  the  step 
that  severed  them  from  the  old,  and  brought  them 
into  new  relations  with  God.  In  baptism  they 
reached  the  culmination  of  conversion,  for  conver- 
sion is  immersion — the  immersion  of  the  mind  in  the 
mind  of  Jesus;  of  the  heart  in  the  love  of  Jesus;  of 
the  will  in  the  purpose  of  Jesus;  of  the  body  in 
water  in  the  name  of  Jesus,  coupled  with  the  name 
of  his  Father  and  ours,  and  with  the  name  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  his  and  ours.  So  the  three  thousand 
"were  added."  It  is  the  Pentecostal  plan  of  the 
addition,  and  therefore  also  of  the  multiplication  of 
believers. 

Not  a  word  is  said  about  any  further  basis  of  mem- 
bership than  this.  Whatever  brought  a  soul  into 
Christ  brought  him  also  into  the  church  of  Christ, 
and  the  basis  of  the  union  of  souls  in  the  Head  of 
the  church  was  by  necessity  the  basis  of  their  union 
and  communion  in  the  body  of  it.  Thus  the  question 
of  Christian  union  is  reduced  to  a  mathematical  ex- 
actness. The  last  word  to  be  said  on  the  subject  is 
this:  union  with  Christ  is  union  with  his  church,  and 
those  who  are  members  of  his  body  are  therefore 
"members  one  of  another."  We  have  made  many 
sad  and  foolish  schisms,  but  the  saddest  and  fool- 
ishest  is  that  between  Christ   himself  and  his  own 


STUDIES    IN   ACTS  53 

body.  We  cannot,  somehow,  seem  to  understand 
that  the  church  is  his,  and  that  all  who  are  members 
of  him  are  by  necessity  members  of  it.  jQiir^difficul- 
ties  are  of  our  own  ci'SSLtion.  We  have  failed  to 
understand  the  primary  union  of  the  Savior  with  the\ 
saved,  of  the  Lord  with  his  domain,  of  the  Head  with; 
his  own  proper  body,  speaking  after  the  fashion  of 
the  Apostle  Paul;  and  having  gone  wrong  in  this 
primary  matter,  we  have  been  going  wrong  by, 
sequence  in  all  secondary  ones.  Foolishly  and  with 
measurable  impudence  we  have  dragged  in  our  creeds„ 
and  polities;  we  demand  places  for  our  clashing] 
isms,  and  recognition  of  our  pet  notions;  we  talk  ofi 
our  denominations,  and  propose  federation  of  them,  ' 
as  though  they  were  the  things  to  be  united;  on  the 
contrary,  the  things  to  be  united  are  Christ  and  our- 
selves. When  you  and  I  are  united  with  Christ,  and 
consequently  with  one  another,  we  are  then  to  go 
anywhere  in  this  world  and  claim  our  place  at  any 
communion  table  that  is  his.  In  defiance  of  dogmas 
and  theologies  and  theometries  and  rituals  and  poli- 
ties and  isms  and  schisms  and  ecclesiasticisms  and 
hierarchies,  high  or  low,  I  have  a  right  to  the  bread 
wherever  it  is  broken  in  his  name,  and  to  the  wine 
wherever  it  speaks  to  me  of  his  blood — I  have  a  right 
to  it  if  I  am  his.  We  need  to  reassert  the  primal, 
Pentecostal  "addition"  of  believers  to  believers. 
That  mode  of  "addition"  is  the  solution  of  the 
whole  problem,  and  its  proper  and  practical  assertion 
would  forever  forestall  such  talk  as  is  too  common 


54  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

and  commonplace  about  the  variously  proposed  bases 
of  union,  such  as  "The  Apostles'  Creed,"  noble,  and 
true,  perhaps,  and  hoary  with  age,  though  the  apos- 
tles themselves  never  dreamed  of  it;  and  "The 
Quadrilateral,"  proposed  as  a  basis  of  union  by  such 
as,  claiming  the  Apostolic  Succession,  have  evidently 
lost  the  apostolic  simplicity;  and  the  Evangelical 
Alliance  creed,  and  any  number  of  things  except  the 
one,  Pentecostal,  right  thing.  If  we  knew  it,  all 
Christians  are  already  united  in  Christ  just  as  the 
Pentecost  thousands  were;  they  all  claim  the 
same  eternal  Father,  they  are  all  journeying  to  the 
same  heaven ;  they  have  only  to  drop  their  extrane- 
ous, and  superfluous,  and  mischievous  peculiarities, 
and  bravely  acknowledge  their  existing  oneness. 

If  the  first  church  was  by  birth  a  unit,  by  its  edu- 
cation it  continued  its  coherence.  "  They  continued 
steadfastly  in  the  apostles'  teaching  and  fellowship, 
and  in  the  breaking  of  bread  and  in  prayers."  The 
teaching  and  fellowship  of  the  apostles,  prayer  and 
the  eucharist,  are  the  divinely-appointed  means  of 
ordination  and  of  co-ordination  in  the  church  of 
Christ.  The  writer  of  Acts  leaves  the  phrase  "  apos- 
tles' teaching"  unqualified,  seemingly  suggesting 
that  their  doctrines  were  so  well  known  as  to  need 
no  iteration.  And  we  do  know,  if  we  stop  to  think 
about  it,  precisely  what  they  taught.  The  Pentecost 
sermon  is  a  summary  of  it;  the  Gospels  are  an 
enlargement  of  it;  the  epistles  are  the  completion 
of  it.     Day  after  day  they  must  have  repeated  the 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  55 

story  of  Christ's  resurrection,  and  from  that  they 
must  have  gone  back  in  memory  to  dwell  upon  his 
life,  full  of  childlike  simplicity  and  more  than  man- 
like perplexity,  and  clothed  at  once  in  warp  and 
woof  of  humility  and  majesty.  They  must  have  had 
occasion,  as  all  pastors  have,  to  enforce  his  style  of 
forbearance  and  forgiveness,  many  and  many  a  time, 
upon  his  fledojling  followers;  often  they  must  have 
described  with  accuracy  and  with  the  enthusiasm  of 
a  vivid  remembrance  his  walk  upon  the  waves  when 
tossed  by  the  night  winds,  his  transfiguration,  sun- 
like pre-robing  of  glory  for  a  season's  communion 
vnth  glorified  ones,  and  his  strange  semi-earthly, 
semi-heavenly  appearances  after  his  resurrection; 
and  very  frequently  they  must  have  turned  to  their 
Scriptures  and  to  the  temple-worship  proceeding 
daily  around  them,  to  find  many  a  prophetic  promise 
and  sacramental  type  of  him.  The  apostles  were 
not  theologians;  they  had  not  |0.  Regenerated.  ^ 
Christological !  Their  teachings  were  wholly  that. 
The  Holy  Spirit  was  not  given  to  make  theologians 
of  them,  but  to  glorify  Christ  through  them.  They 
had  been  trained  by  Jesus  to  trust  God  as  children 
trust  a  Father,  and  to  believe  in  himself  as  both 
Lord  and  Christ,  and  to  go  about  doing  good. 
They  were  entirely  and  beneficently  innocent  of  all 
speculations  about  Mouarchianism,  and  Eutychian- 
ism,  and  Monophysitism,  and  Monothelitism, 
and  Supra-lapsarianism,  and  Sublapsarianism,  and 
the  Kenosis,    and   the    Krypsis,  and  the   genus  ideo- 


56  STUDIES    IN   ACTS 

maticum,  and    the    genus   apotelesmaticum^  and    the 
genus  majestaticum,   and   of  transubstantiation,  and 
consubstantiation,     and      eternal      generation,     and 
eternal  procession,  and  co-substantiality  and  tri-per- 
sonality,    and    the    voUprcesentia,   or    the    muUivoli- 
proesentia    of    Christ    as    opposed    to    the    absolute 
ubiquity   of    his   humanity  from   his   very  infancy — 
O  thank  God!     The  apostles  were  beneficently  inno- 
cent of  all  this.     They  were  too  reverent  and  prac- 
tical   to    indulge    in   such   meddlesome   and    useless 
speculations.     Not   until  the   ill-starred   times  when 
there  came  an  alliance  between  the  Christian  faith 
on  the  one  hand  and  Greek  speculation  and  Roman 
dogmatism  on  the  other,  and  not  till  men  lost  their 
reverence  in  the  heat  and  impetuosity  of  their  pur- 
suit of  partisan  ends  was  it  possible  to  indulge  in  the 
"profane  and  vain  babblings"  that  encompass  the 
whole  history  of  theology.     The  members  of  the  first 
church,  ''continuing  steadfastly   in   the   doctrine  of 
the  apostles,"  lived  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  loving  loy- 
alty to   the   personal   Lordship  of  Jesus,  and   since 
Jesus   was  a  brother  and  a  friend  and  a  reality  to 
them   they   would   have   speculated   quite   as  readily 
about  one  another  as  about   him.     Even   John,  the 
most   mystical   of   all   the   twelve,  kept  through  the 
whole  of  his  life  to  a  reverently  simple  and  absolute 
declaration   of    that   "Word,"  which   he   had   seen, 
which  he  had  looked  upon,  which  he  had  heard,  and 
his  hands  had  handled  (I.  John  i.  1-3).     From  that 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS  57 

he  proceeded  immediately  to  practical  matters,  for- 
bidding speculative  ones. 

It  is  needful  to  note  in  a  word  that  the  first  church 
enjoyed  the  fellowship  of  the  apostles  together  with 
their  teaching.  Forever  and  forever  the  teachers 
whom  Christ  appoints  are  to  be  the  "fellows,"  the 
friends  and  brothers  of  those  whom  they  are  ap- 
pointed to  teach.  The  lords  over  the  heritage,  with 
their  secular  scepters  and  high  miters,  have  ceased  to 
be  apostolical,  since  with  albs  and  crosiers  and  palli- 
ums  and  red  caps  and  clerical  titles,  and  every  pos- 
sible distinction  between  themselves  and  "the  laity," 
from  the  peculiar  cut  of  a  coat  to  the  supercilious 
assumption  of  infallibility,  such  teachers  have  sep- 
arated themselves  from  their  disciples.  The  fellow- 
ship, the  friendship,  the  environment  of  the  teacher 
is  essential  to  the  completest  efficacy  of  his  teaching. 
Hence  Jesus  lived  among  his  disciples.  Hence  the 
apostles  lived  among  the  members  of  the  first  church. 
Hence  the  true  pastor  must  live  among  his  people, 
and  the  ringing  of  door-bells  is  quite  as  essential  as 
the  announcing  of  texts.  From  the  fellowship  of 
the  apostles,  and  the  fellowship  of  all  true  teach- 
ers and  pastors,  out  through  the  medium  of  the 
church  there  is  to  go  forth  at  last  that  fellowship, 
which,  breaking  down  all  caste,  is  to  compass  the 
whole  earth, — 

"When  each  shall  find  his  own  in  all  men's  good, 
And  all  men  dwell  in  noble  brotherhood," 

and  when  each   man's  title   to  reverence  shall  pro- 


58  STUDIES    IN   ACTS 

ceed  from  his  ministerial  rather  than  his  magisterial 
service  to  men. 

The  first  church  continued  steadfastly  in  the  break- 
ing of  bread  and  in  prayers.  According  to  the  forty- 
sixth  verse  of  the  chapter  this  "breaking  of  bread" 
was  a  daily  service.  It  was  modeled  after  Christ's 
last  supper  with  liis  disciples,  Avhich  was  a  full  meal; 
after  that  the  bread  and  the  wine  were  passed, 
blessed  with  his  blessing,  and  set  apart  forever  to 
the  remembrance  of  him.  Gradually  changes  came 
both  in  the  time  and  the  manner  of  the  observance 
of  this  communal  supper  and  communion  service.  In 
the  twentieth  chapter  of  Acts  we  already  have  indica- 
tions that  the  daily  feast  had  in  the  Gentile  church  at 
Troas  passed  over  into  a  weekly  one,  and  that  the  first 
day  of  the  week  was  the  statedly  appointed  time  for  it. 
But  that  the  communal  supper,  or  love-feast,  as  it 
has  been  called,  and  the  communion  service  were 
separated  during  the  days  of  the  apostles  is  not  quite 
clear.  There  are  indications  of  such  separation  in 
the  Apostle  Paul's  instructions  to  the  Corinthian 
church,  for  in  this  church  the  supper  fell  under 
shameful  abuses,  "  one  being  hungry  and  another 
drunken."  The  apostle  thereupon  rebuked  them, 
saying,  "What?  Have  you  not  houses  to  eat  and 
drink  in?  Or  despise  ye  the  church  of  God,  and 
shame  them  that  are  poor?  "  Then,  following  this 
suggestion  that  they  should  eat  and  drink  in  their 
own  houses,  that  is,  that  they  should  take  their  own 
suppers  in  their  own  houses,  he  emphasizes  in  the 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  59 

most  solemn  way  the  Lord's  supper  as  commemo- 
rative of  the  Lord's  death.  This  much  is  certain: 
the  daily  communal  supper  was  never  commanded 
by  Christ,  and  from  its  nature  it  could  not  become 
permanent  in  the  church.  The  communion  service, 
on  the  other  hand,  was  commanded,  and  its  nature 
bespeaks  its  permanence. 

Before  Jesus  died,  in  anticipation  of  his  death,  he 
broke  the  bread  and  blessed  it,  and  he  blessed  the 
wine,  and  gave  both  to  his  disciples  as  age-long, 
sacred  symbols  of  himself,  afflicted  though  he  was, 
and  despised,  and  rejected  of  men,  yet  devoted  to 
men,  and  already  in  intent  as  truly  dead  as  when  he 
died.  Oh,  the  love,  the  courage,  the  dauntlessness  of 
Jesus!  With  a  present  tense  preceding  his  death  he 
calmly  gave  to  his  disciples  and  to  the  world  a 
reminder  of  something  that  was  yet  to  be.  **  This  is 
my  body  which  is  broken  for  you!"  "This  cup  is 
the  New  Testament  in  my  blood!"  He  is  a  Lamb 
"slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world."  In  in- 
tent, and  no  less  in  fact,  the  atonement  runs  through 
the  whole  of  his  life,  of  which  his  death  is  but 
the  climax,  of  which  his  resurrection  is  the  seal,  it 
being  his  second  and  final  transfiguration  never  to 
be  followed  by  humiliation.  The  death  of  Jc-^iJt^.^ 
is  not  an  accident.  It  is  an  integral  part  of  his  life. 
To  remember  his  death  is  to  remember  him,  and  his 
atoning  death  is  his  atoning  self,  given,  devoted,  in 
anticipation  slain,  slain  from  the  first,  yet  in  resur- 
rection livinof  forever. 


60  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

In  their  direct  way  of  looking  at  it,  the  Pentecost 
Christians  could  never  have  dreamed  of  anything  so 
shocking  as  the  Mediaeval  doctrine  of  "blood  atone- 
ment." To  them  the  death-tragedy  of  Jesus  was  the  'i 
/culmination  of  his  life-tragedy,  the  two  being  bound  | 
together  as  antecedent  and  consequent,  thus  forming  | 
one  mighty  movement  of  the  one  transcendent  life,  | 
the  whole  acknowledged  of  Grod  and  sealed  by  him  in  ^ 
the  resurrection  of  his  Son  from  the  dead.  And 
where  is  the  efficacy  of  this  mingled  tragedy  of  life 
and  death  and  resurrection?  On  Pentecost  it  pricked 
the  thousands  in  their  hearts;  they  cried  in  peni- 
tence and  baptism  unto  God,  and  were  forgiven,  and 
that  was  their  atonement.  After  repentance  and  for- 
giveness, to  talk  about  a  divine  justice  or  a  divine 
law  still  to  be  "satisfied,"  is  ill-timed  and  illogical. 
A  father  who  has  looked  upon  the  face  of  his  penitent 
child  and  has  forgiven  him,  is  already  satisfied,  and 
more  sweetly  so  than  by  any  possible  other  "pay- 
ment." To  the  first  Christian  church,  therefore, 
the  communion  service  must  have  been  a  weekly 
reminder  of  Christ  and  all  that  the  apostles  were  con- 
tinually telling  about  him;  and  of  that  pricking  in 
the  heart  which  brought  them  to  repentance  and 
baptism;  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit's  blessed  promise 
thereupon  of  the  forgiveness  of  their  sins.  In  the 
light  of  this  chapter  the  atonement,  the  '^unio 
mysfica,''  well-nigh  ceases  to  be  mystical;  theology 
becomes  Christology,  and  the  Lord's  supper  becomes 
a  Father's  feast,  with  the  Elder  Brother  and  all  the 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS  61 

children  at  table,  breaking  bread  from  one  loaf,  par- 
taking of  wine  from  a  common  cup,  remembering  the 
one  body  and  the  one  blood  of  the  one  Greatest 
Brother,  and  not  forgetting  that  "God  hath  made  of 
one  blood  (is  it  not  the  same?)  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth."  The  communion  service  thus,  when  prop- 
erly seen  from  the  standpoint  of  the  first  church,  will 
set  our  eyes  looking  upon  the  simplest,  sweetest  sort, 
not  of  doctrinal  but  of  practical  and  actual  atone- 
ment, and  it  will  set  them  looking  also  both  Godward 
and  manward  in  heaven-high  and  world-wide  ways. 

However,  this  question  should  not  be  studied  in 
the  spirit  of  triumphant  rationalism,  but  in  caution 
and  reverence,  since  there  are  positions  that  easily 
offer  themselves  to  a  hasty  logic  based  upon  the 
rough  and  ready  dealings  of  man  with  man,  rather 
than  upon  the  revealed  dealings  of  God  with  man. 

Though  the  first  church  must  be  exonerated  from 
the  Komish  doctrine  of  the  vicarious  atonement,  it 
must  nevertheless  have  been  influenced  in  its  views 
of  the  death  of  Jesus  by  the  sacrificial  system  upon 
which,  through  all  their  generations,  the  Jews  had 
been  trained  to  look  with  utmost  reverence.  The 
standpoint  of  John  the  Baptist  is  evidently  that 
also  of  John  the  Apostle,  and  is  therefore  indicative 
of  that  of  the  apostolic  church:  "Behold  the  Lamb 
of  God  that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world." 
John  Ruskin,  revolting  with  all  of  his  characteris- 
tically seer-like  soul  from  much  that  is  taught  in 
theology,  has,  nevertheless,  with   accurate,  spiritual 


62  STUDIES    IN   ACTS 

and  scriptural  insight,  avoided  an  extreme  that  has 
proved  too  great  an  allurement  to  many  a  smaller 
soul,  namely,  that  the  death  of  Jesus  has  no  other 
than  ethical  and  evidential  values  for  us.  The  fol- 
lowing paragraph  is  from  his  *'The  Art  of  England," 
and  is  so  fair  a  comment  upon  many  a  passage  in  the 
New  Testament  as  to  deserve  a  place  in  every  such 
discussion  as  this: 

"None  of  you  who  have  the  least  acquaintance  with 
the  general  tenor  of  my  own  teaching  will  suspect  in 
me  any  bias  toward  the  doctrine  of  vicarious  sacrifice 
as  it  is  taught  by  the  modern  evangelical  preacher. 
But  the  great  mystery  of  the  idea  of  sacrifice  itself, 
which  has  been  manifested  as  one  united  and  solemn 
instinct  by  all  thoughtful  and  affectionate  races  since 
the  wide  world  became  peopled,  is  founded  upon  the 
secret  truth  of  benevolent  energy  which  all  men  who 
have  tried  to  gain  it  have  learned — that  you  cannot 
save  men  from  death  but  by  facing  it  for  them,  nor 
from  sin  but  by  resisting  it  for  them.  It  is,  on  the 
contrary,  the  favorite  and  the  worst  falsehood  of 
modern  infidel  morality,  that  you  serve  your  fellow- 
creatures  best  by  getting  a  percentage  out  of  their 
pockets,  and  will  best  provide  for  starving  multitudes 
by  regaling  yourselves.  Some  day  or  other — proba- 
bly now  very  soon — too  probably  by  heavy  afflictions 
of  the  state,  we  shall  be  taught  that  it  is  not  so ;  and 
that  all  the  true  good  and  glory,  even  of  this  world — 
not  to  speak  of  any  that  is  to  come — must  be  bought 
still,  as  it  always  has  been,  with  our  toil  and  with  our 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  63 

tears.  That  is  the  final  doctrine,  the  inevitable  one, 
not  of  Christianity  only,  but  of  all  heroic  faith  and 
heroic  being;  and  the  first  trial  question  of  a  true 
soul  must  be — Have  I  a  religion,  have  I  a  country, 
have  I  a  love,  that  I  am  ready  to  die  for?" 

The  first  church  was  a  praying  church.  It  was 
ushered  in  by  the  way  of  prayer,  for  in  that  upper 
room  previous  to  the  day  of  Pentecost  "they  all  con- 
tinued with  one  accord  in  prayer  and  supplication." 
It  was  nourished  by  prayer,  and  within  the  apostolic 
environment  it  breathed  the  atmosphqre  of  prayer. 
The  church  of  Christ  is  unique  in  that  it  is  a  praying 
brotherhood.  There  are  secret  fraternities,  and  com- 
mercial fraternities,  and  fighting  fraternities,  but  the 
secret  and  the  wealth  and  the  weapons  of  the  church 
are  in  prayer.  The  effectual,  fervent  prayers  of  the 
first  church  were  not  without  startling  efficacy. 
When  they  communed  they  prayed;  when  they  or- 
dained deacons  they  prayed;  when  they  were  perse- 
cuted they  prayed;  if  they  died,  they  died  praying, 
and  saying,  "Lord  Jesus,  receive  my  spirit."  When 
Peter  was  in  prison  they  prayed  daily  for  him,  and 
even  while  they  prayed  he  stood,  to  their  surprise, 
knocking  at  their  gate.  For  the  angel  of  the  Lord 
answered  their  prayers,  taking  him  from  the  sleeping 
soldiers,  and  leading  him  forth  through  prison  doors 
and  iron  gates  that  "opened  of  their  own  accord." 
A  prayerless  Christian  is  an  anomaly,  and  likewise  a 
prayerless  church.  Prayer  belongs  among  the  "all 
things  "  that  Jesus  commanded  to  be  taught.     "  Jesus 


64  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

himself,"  says  Mozoomdar,  'Mived  and  died  in 
prayer."  "They  saw  prayer  when  they  beheld  Jesus 
praying,  for  as  he  prayed  the  fashion  of  his  counte- 
nance was  altered." 

"There  is  more  wisdom  in  a  whispered  prayer 
Than  in  the  ancient  lore  of  all  the  schools; 
The  soul  upon  its  knees  holds  God  by  the  hand." 

The  laws  of  prayer  may  be  traced  in  the  prayers  of 
the  first  church.  They  who  continued  in  prayer  were 
all  believers  in  Christ  as  their  Savior,  and  therefore 
in  God  as  their  Father;  such  belief  is  the  first  law  of 
Christian  prayer. 

They  were  all  obedient,  having  done  punctually  and 
precisely  what  they  were  commanded  to  do;  this  is 
the  second  law  of  Christian  prayer. 

Unarmed  and  in  the  midst  of  enemies  who  would 
soon  let  loose  the  fires  of  persecution  upon  them, 
they  were  helpless  without  God,  and  therefore  de- 
pendent upon  him;  this  is  the  third  law  of  Christian 
prayer. 

As  shown  in  their  community  of  distribution,  these 
Christians  loved,  and  love  is  a  sacred  condition  of 
prayer. 

"He  prayeth  best  who  loveth  best 
All  things  both  great  and  small; 
For  the  dear  God  who  loveth  us, 
He  made  and  loveth  all." 

"Prayer  is  the  highest  form  of  speech  t!iat  human 
lips  can  try." 

"A  man  holds  himself  at  his  best  when  he  prays." 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS  65 

Prayer  is  the  other  half  of  work.  It  is  the  prov- 
ince of  the  Christian  to  work  and  pray. 

The  first  church  "had  all  things  common,  and  sold 
their  possessions  and  goods,  and  parted  them  to  all 
men  as  every  man  had  need."  This  was  a  voluntary, 
not  a  compulsory  communism.  The  right  to  their 
own  property  both  before  and  after  the  sale  of  it  was 
recognized  by  the  Apostle  Peter  in  the  case  of  Ana- 
nias and  Sapphira.  "Whiles  it  remained  was  it  not 
thine  own?  And  after  it  was  sold  was  it  not  in  thine 
own  power?"  These  people  were  condemned  for 
their  attempted  deception,  not  for  their  retention  of 
a  portion  of  their  goods.  Doubtless  many  of  the 
members  of  this  church  retained  their  own  houses,  as 
was  the  case  with  Mary  the  mother  of  John,  in  whose 
house  they  gathered  to  pray  for  Peter  when  he  was  in 
prison,  Acts  xii.  12.  The  common  store  did  not 
enrich  the  apostles,  for  they  said  to  the  lame  man  at 
the  gate  of  the  temple,  "  Silver  and  gold  have  we 
none."  Yet,  that  the  goods  were  "  laid  at  the  apos- 
tles' feet"  indicates  that  they  had  the  entire  control 
of  them.  Their  use  of  them  therefore  must  have 
been  strictly  for  the  good  of  the  community,  and  not 
at  all  for  personal  gain. 

The  dangers  to  which  the  first  Christians  were  sub- 
jected, their  common  faith  and  love,  and  their  expec- 
tation of  the  early  reappearance  of  Jesus,  led  many 
of  them  to  this  voluntary  surrender  of  their  goods. 

After  all,  the  communism  was  in  distribution  rather 


66  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

than  in  possession.  The  first  church  had  no  claim 
on  the  goods  of  its  members,  it  was  simply  a  store- 
house for  their  free-will  offerings.  There  was  no 
confiscation  on  the  part  of  the  church,  and  no  obliga- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  members  except  the  con- 
straint of  their  enthusiasm  and  love.  But  in  distri- 
bution there  was  the  strictest  obligation  resting  on 
the  apostles  to  see  that  every  one  was  supplied 
according  to  his  needs.  As  the  church  grew  the  work 
became  too  great  for  them,  and  hence  the  appoint- 
ment of  the  seven  deacons  to  whom  the  service  of 
the  "tables"  was  committed,  the  apostles  giving 
themselves   to   the   preaching   of   the   word. 

Such  a  communism  of  the  storing  and  distribution 
of  voluntary  gifts  is  not  traceable  in  any  of  the  Gen- 
tile churches,  and  it  seems  to  have  led  ultimately  to 
the  poverty  and  dependence  of  many  in  the  first 
church,  for  in  later  years  the  Apostle  Paul  went 
about  among  the  Gentile  Christians  in  Macedonia  and 
Achaia  soliciting  help  for  the  "poor  saints  which 
were  in  Jerusalem." 

In  close  and  profitable  study  the  accidental  must  be 
distinguished  from  the  essential.  In  the  first  church 
the  teaching  and  fellowship  of  the  apostles,  the 
breaking  of  bread,  and  the  prayers,  were  essential 
and  permanent.  The  canceling  of  any  of  these  fac- 
tors would  cripple  any  church.  But  the  communism 
was  accidental  and  transient,  and  passed  away  with 
the  transient  conditions  from  which  it  arose.  The 
essential  and  abiding  principle  underneath  this  outer 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  67 

communism  was  the  spirit  of  brotherly  kindness, 
under  the  constraint  of  which  none  of  them  said  that 
aught  of  the  things  which  he  possessed  was  his  own. 
True  stewards  of  God's  gifts,  they  held  their  prop- 
erty at  the  service  of  his  church.  This  was  the  abid- 
ing, social  soul  of  Christianity,  and  it  was  manifested 
as  truly  by  the  churches  of  Macedonia  and  Achaia  in 
their  gifts  to  the  "poor  saints"  far  away,  and  of 
another  and  erstwhile  hateful  lineage,  as  by  those 
who  in  Jerusalem  sold  their  lands  and  laid  the  prices 
at  the  apostles'  feet.  Out  of  this,  the  abiding  social 
soul  of  Christianity,  there  has  gone  forth  through  all 
the  centuries  that  bear  the  name  of  our  Lord  the 
innumerable  benefactions  of  his  church.  Schools, 
hospitals,  asylums,  churches,  missions  and  martyr- 
doms have  sprung  from  it;  and  the  most  advanced  of 
civilizations  owe  themselves  to  it;  and  even  revolu- 
tions have  been  indirectly  due  to  it  when  under  the 
constraint  of  tyranny  this  spirit,  misguided,  has 
become  an  explosive  force  among  the  multitudes  of 
men.  This  fraternal  spirit  in  Christianity  is 
coming  more  and  more  to  express  itself  in  forms  of 
popular  government  and  in  altruistic  ways.  It 
must  become  regnant  throughout  all  the  arts  of  pro- 
duction, and  the  avenues  of  distribution,  till  justice 
and  charity  consort  together,  and  the  hungry  are  fed, 
and  the  naked  are  clothed,  and  the  imprisoned  are 
visited,  and  the  sick  and  the  sinful  are  ministered 
unto,  each  according  to  his  crying  needs.  Beyond  all 
notions   of    enforced   state   communism,    which    can 


68  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

have  no  warrant  from  the  book  of  Acts,  there  rises 
the  lofty  socialism  of  the  Master  himself,  "  Inasmuch 
as  ye  have  done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  my 
brethren,  ye  have  done  it  unto  me."  And  if  the 
decisions  of  the  judgment  day  are  to  rest  upon  jus- 
tice, and  if  justice  is  to  be  wedded  with  charity  in  the 
ultimate  righting  of  social  wrongs,  if  this  is  the  con- 
clusion arrived  at  by  our  wisest  leaders  of  thought, 
then  let  it  be  remembered  that  this  also  is  the  conclu- 
sion of  Christ's  pictured  day  of  awful  reckonings, 
and  that  the  parable  of  ministrations  becomes  on  the 
one  hand  the  parable  of  sweetest  invitations,  and  on 
the  other  of  eternal  condemnations.  Christianity  is 
not  communism,  but  it  is  fraternism,  and  to  the  cold 
and  hungry  brother  at  the  door  it  does  not  say, 
"Depart  in  peace;   be  ye  warmed  and  filled." 


III. 

THE   FIRST   PERSECUTION 


"  But  I  say  unto  you,  Love  your  enemies,  bless  them  that  curse 
you,  do  good  to  them  that  hate  you,  and  pray  for  them  that 
despitefuUy  use  you  and  persecute  you ;  that  ye  may  be  the  children 
of  your  Father  who  is  in  heaven ;  for  he  maketh  his  sun  to  rise  on 
the  evil  and  on  the  good,  and  sendeth  rain  on  the  just  and  on  the 
unjust."— Jfatt.  V.  44,  45. 

"Woe  unto  you,  scribes  and  Pharisees,  hypocrites!  because  ye 
build  the  tombs  of  the  pi-ophets,  and  garnish  the  sepulchers  of  the 
righteous,  and  say.  If  we  had  been  in  the  days  of  our  fathers,  we 
would  not  have  been  partakers  with  them  in  the  blood  of  the 
prophets.  Wherefore  ye  be  witnesses  unto  yourselves  that  ye  are 
children  of  them  who  killed  the  prophets.  Fill  ye  up  then  the  meas- 
ure of  your  fathers.  Ye  serpents,  ye  generation  of  vipers,  how  can 
ye  escape  the  judgment  of  hell?  "— ikfatt.  xxiii.  29-33. 


III. 

THE  FIRST   PERSECUTION. 

"And  as  they  spake  to  the  people,  the  priests,  and  the  captain  of 
the  temple,  and  the  Sadducees  came  upon  them,  being  grieved  that 
they  taught  the  people,  and  preached  through  Jesus  the  resurrection 
from  the  dead." — Acts  iv.  i,  2. 

A  REMARKABLE  source  of  grief  surely !  This  is  not 
irony,  it  is  history.  Men  may  be  known  by  what  they 
are  accustomed  to  weep  over,  as  well  as  by  what  they 
delight  to  laugh  at.  They  wagged  their  heads  when 
Jesus  died;  they  now  mourn  w^hen  he  is  preached. 
Thus  in  their  mockery  and  their  mourning  these 
wretched  misleaders  of  God's  ancient,  chosen,  and 
glorious  people,  hav^e  given  their  measure  to  all  the 
world,  and  the  world  has  rewarded  them  by  keeping 
their  remembrance  as  a  hiss  and  a  by-word.  In  pro- 
portion to  its  valuation  of  Jesus  the  world  metes  out 
execration,  not  to  his  murderers,  but  to  their  cher- 
ished hardness  of  heart,  and  the  brighter  the  glory 
that  gathers  round  him  the  deeper  the  darkness  into 
which  their  sins  are  cast. 

Christ's  resurrection  was  God's  answer  to  the 
nation  that  murdered  Christ.  The  empty  sepulcher 
and  the  miracle  of  Pentecost  were  the  chagrin  and 
the  confusion  of  the  haters  of  Jesus.  The  believers 
suddenly  became  an  army  numbering  thousands;  they 

71 


72  STUDIES,  IN    ACTS 

were  gathered  into  a  community,  many  wonders  and 
signs  were  done  by  the  apostles,  and  fear  came  upon 
every  soul.  The  crucifixion  darkness  that  gathered 
at  noonday,  the  earthquake  and  the  rending  of  the 
temple  veil,  the  report  of  the  resurrection  and  the 
miracle  of  tongues,  the  new  community  and  the  con- 
continued  wonder-working  of  the  apostles,  was  the 
terrible  array,  mightier  than  an  army  with  banners, 
which  God  brought  to  front  tiie  consciences  of  his 
rebellious  and  gainsaying  people.  By  the  voice  of 
this  mighty  array,  as  in  the  most  majestic,  mourn- 
ful language  of  forsaken  love,  God  was  still  calling 
to  his  people,  and  saying,  *' Repent,  and  be  baptized, 
every  one  of  you  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  for 
the  remission  of  sins,  and  ye  shall  receive  the  gift  of 
the  Holy  Spirit."  This  is  the  Pentecost  translation 
of  Isaiah's  tongue  of  fire,  and  of  Jeremiah's  mourn- 
ing, and  of  Ezekiel's  rebukes,  plus  the  superlative 
emphasis  of  Christ's  own  tears  and  blood  and  empty 
tomb. 

For  a  while  the  leaders  of  the  nation  were  stupe- 
fied, and  they  offered  no  resistance.  The  apostles 
preached  in  the  temple  courts,  and  the  multitude  of 
believers  increased  daily.  These  days  were  even 
more  crucial  to  the  nation  than  the  ones  that  cm- 
braced  the  trial  and  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus,  for  at 
that  time  the  divine  demonstration  was  not  yet  com- 
plete, and  there  was  room  still  for  excuse  and  prayer 
and  forgiveness.  Therefore  the  prayer  of  the  pas- 
sion, *' Father,  forgive  them;   they  know   not   what 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  73 

they  do."  But  now  the  evidence  is  all  in;  the  dem- 
onstration is  complete;  Christ  has  arisen,  and  the 
Holy  Spirit  has  been  given;  whom  they  have  re- 
jected, God  has  accepted,  and  the  stone  of  their 
stumbling  has  been  made  by  Jehovah  himself  the 
head  of  the  corner.  There  is  no  longer  any  excuse. 
For  days  they  have  nothing  to  say,  and  they  seem 
cast  in  the  balance,  hesitating,  terrified.  There  are 
moments  freighted  with  destinies,  and  these  Pente- 
costal days,  the  birth  season  of  the  church  of  the 
Redeemer,  were  the  last  days  of  grace  extended  to 
the  "children  of  Abraham,"  the  revilers  of  Jesus. 
The  evidence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  witnessing  to  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus  in  miracles  of  speech,  and  with 
heart-piercings,  and  gifts  of  healing,  was  before 
them  daily,  and  in  the  very  precincts  of  the  temple, 
for  *' these  things  were  not  done  in  a  corner."  It 
was  their  last  call,  and  it  was  crucial.  Be3'oud  this 
no  offer  could  be  made,  for  it  was  the  call  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  dwelling  in  the  community  of  the  be- 
lievers, glorifying  Jesus,  and  convincing  the  unbe- 
lievers of  sin  because  they  had  rejected  him;  of 
righteousness  because  God  had  accepted  him ;  and  of 
judgment  because  by  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  the 
prince  of  this  world  was  judged.  From  the  day  of 
Pentecost  their  resistance  of  the  apostles  was  a 
resistance  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  their  persecution 
of  the  spiritually  endued  community  of  believers 
was  a  final  blasphemy. 

The  occasion  of  the  first  persecution  was  the  heal- 


74  STUDIES    IN   ACTS 

ing  of  the  lame  man  and  the  sermon  that  followed. 
Under  a  vine  of  gold  with  clusters  of  golden  grapes 
as  large  as  a  man's  body,  sat  this  crippled,  life-loug 
beggar.  It  is  the  mark  of  a  decadent  religion  to 
adorn  its  temples  and  neglect  its  men.  Forty  and  six 
years  had  this  temple  been  building,  and  the  ham- 
mers of  its  workmen  were  still  heard  in  it,  and  the 
expenditure  upon  its  marble  and  gold  was  incalcula- 
ble. It  seems  like  the  irony  of  fate  that  this  beggar 
should  have  been  carried  daily  and  placed  like  a  hun- 
gry, ragged,  human  statue  ,in  the  midst  of  this  gilded 
luxuriance  of  architecture  and  art.  Too  frequently 
it  still  happens  that  our  temples  have  the  double 
adornment  of  beautiful  gates  and  begging  men. 
Encircled  by  this  vine  of  gold,  and  standing  amidst 
the  clusters  of  its  fruit  of  gold,  the  apostles  stooped 
to  take  the  ragged  cripple  by  the  hand,  and  to  say  to 
him,  "Silver  and  gold  have  I  none;  but  such  as  I 
have  give  I  thee;  in  the  name  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
rise  up  and  walk."  Better  than  the  building  of  a 
temple  is  the  healing  of  a  man.  Immediately  the 
man,  a  cripple  from  his  birth,  leaped  and  walked, 
and  entered  with  them  into  the  temple,  walking  and 
leaping  and  praising  God.  All  at  once  the  crowds  of 
well-to-do  worshipers  became  interested  in  their  beg- 
gar brother,  and  in  his  benefactors,  whom  he  held 
by  the  hands.  This  gave  the  Apostle  Peter  the  occa- 
sion for  another  sermon,  the  duplicate  in  tone  and 
substance  of  the  one  on  Pentecost.  It  was  another 
of  those  unique  occasions  furnished  providentially  to 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  75 

the  apostles  in  the  early  days  of  their  evidential 
work.  The  sermon  is  a  marvel  of  daring,  accusing, 
excusing,  and  appealing  speech,  backed  by  an  incar- 
nate miracle ;  for  still  as  the  apostle  speaks,  the  man 
who  never  had  walked  stands  and  leaps,  and  the 
wondering  worshipers  stand  staring,  and  listening 
that  they  may  learn  the  secret  of  the  miracle.  And 
when  they  have  learned  it  curiosity  has  passed  over 
into  conviction,  for  once  more  they  hear  nothing  but 
the  story  of  the  Christ  crucified  at  their  hands,  raised 
up  by  the  hand  of  God,  and  proving  his  potency  to 
forgive  by  his  potency  to  heal.  The  results  of  Pen- 
tecost were  well  nigh  repeated,  the  three  thousand 
having  become  five  thousand  before  that  day's  even- 
tide. It  was  a  beneficent  work,  full  of  holy  teach- 
ing, and  love,  and  healing,  and  hope,  and  forgiveness. 
There  w^as  nothing  unseemly  in  the  conduct  of  the 
apostles;  they  were  unarmed,  they  stirred  up  no 
seditions,  they  made  no  threats.  Why,  then,  were 
they  persecuted? 

Their  words  were  sharper  than  a  two-edged  sword, 
and  their  teachings  more  revolutionary  than  an  army 
with  banners.  They  were  -persecuted  for  the  same 
reason  that  Jesus  was  persecuted;  the  prince  of  this 
world  had  nothing  in  him,  but  everything  to  oppose 
in  him.  In  an  age  of  intense  and  bitter  hatreds 
Jesus  and  his  apostles  preached  love;  in  the  midst 
of  a  nation  rankling  with  every  possible  retaliation 
they  preached  forbearance  and  forgiveness;  into  a 
world  governed  by  armies  and  swords  and  iron  seep- 


76  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

ters  they  came  with  broken  reeds,  and  thorn-crowned 
brows,  preaching  disarmament.  Immediately  after 
Jesus  had  fed  the  five  thousand  men  with  five  barley 
loaves  and  two  small  fishes  they  came  to  take  him  by 
force  and  make  him  a  king.  What  a  commissariat 
he  would  have  been  for  an  army  marching  against 
Rome!  Narrow  nationalists  and  hateful  trucklers 
that  they  were,  that  was  the  thought  uppermost 
with  them — they  would  make  him  a  king,  and  their 
armies  should  have  leadership,  and  no  need  of  for- 
aging'. But  when  Jesus  refused  to  be  such  a  king, 
and  i^vhen  he  persisted  in  still  going  about  and  doing 
good,  preaching  peace,  and  forbearance,  and  for- 
giveness, their  disappointment  and  indignation  knew 
no  bounds.  At  last,  after  the  resurrection  of  Laz- 
arus, they  gave  expression  to  the  full  secret  of  their 
opposition  to  him  in  these  words:  "What  do  we? 
for  this  man  doeth  many  miracles.  If  we  let  him 
thus  alone  all  men  will  believe  on  him,  and  the  Rom- 
ans will  come  and  take  away  our  place  and  nation." 
(John  xi.  47,  48;  xii.  10,  11).  They  even  consulted 
that  they  might  put  Lazarus  also  to  death,  *'  Because 
that  by  reason  of  him  many  of  the  Jews  went  away 
and  believed  on  Jesus."  To  a  nation,  therefore, 
hating  Caesar  worse  than  Satan  Jesus  was  repugnant. 
Hence  at  last  he  was  called  upon  to  die  in  political 
martyrdom  to  his  own  peace  principles. 

There  were  religious  reasons  also  for  their  oppo- 
sition to  Jesus  and  his  apostles.  Jesus  exposed  mer- 
cilessly   the    hollowness    of    Phariseeism    and    the 


STUDIES    IN   ACTS  77 

heresies  of  Sadduceeisiii.  Their  slavery  to  Sabbath 
rituals,  their  mummery  of  endless  ceremonialism, 
their  self-righteous  disdain  of  everybody  not  of  their 
own  set,  their  street-corner  praying,  their  vain- 
glorious ailms-giving,  their  tithing  of  mint,  their  neg- 
lect of  mercy,  their  hand-washings  and  their  heart- 
hardenings,  their  utter  self-abandonment  to  forms 
and  rituals  and  hatred  and  hypocrisy  and  supercili- 
ousness were  met  on  the  part  of  Jesus  with  stern 
rebuke,  and  utter  condemnation,  and  warnings 
against  an  eternal  hell.  Upon  them  at  last  Jesus 
fixed  his  stigma  forever;  they  felt  its  sting,  and  they 
never  forgave  him  for  it:  "Whited  sepulchers,  full 
of  dead  men's  bones!  "  When  the  time  came  for 
it  their  reply  was,  "Crucify  him!    Crucify  him!  " 

To  a  people  utterly  false  nothing  is  more  repulsive 
than  truth,  and  to  a  people  utterly  hateful  nothing 
can  be  more  revolutionary  than  love.  Hence  it  was 
that  the  light  shined  in  darkness  and  the  darkness 
comprehended  it  not;  that  Jesus  came  to  his  own 
and  his  own  received  him  not. 

With  such  a  man  in  such  a  nation,  one  of  two 
things  was  inevitable;  they  must  repent,  or  he  must 
perish.  They  had  no  intention  of  the  former,  he 
had  a  full  intention  of  the  latter;  that  is,  he  intended 
to  perish  that  he  might  not  perish.  From  the  first, 
Jesus  knew  that  his  face  was  toward  the  cross. 
When  Peter  acknowledged  him  as  the  Christ,  the 
Son  of  the  living  God,  Jesus  in  turn  acknowledged 
the  title,  and  immediately  pointed  out  to  his  aston- 


78  STUDIES    IN   ACTS 

ished  disciple  the  pathway  that  a  being  wearing 
worthily  such  a  title  must  take  through  this  world. 
From  the  day  of  his  temptation  and  triumph  in  the 
wilderness,  it  was  as  clear  to  him  as  a  mathematical 
demonstration,  that  love  can  be  made  perfect  only  in 
loving  one's  enemies,  and  in  loving  them  enough  to 
die  for  them,  and  in  loving  them  unto  death,  should 
they  demand  it.  Likewise  that  forgiveness  can  be 
made  perfect  only  in  forgiving  as  long  as  the  breath 
of  prayer  can  move  to  repentance ;  and  that  non-re- 
taliation can  find  its  perfection  only  in  dying,  not  in 
cursing,  nor  even  in  commanding  the  wrath  of 
legions  of  angels  to  go  forth  smiting.  If  instead  of 
dying  Jesus  had  retaliated,  had  he  smitten  the  nation 
with  sudden  destruction,  there  would  have  ])een  an 
end  of  love  and  of  forbearance,  and  a  mockery  of 
his  own  peace  principles.  Flad  he  given  himself  to 
malediction  instead  of  prayers,  he  would  have  been 
false  to  his  own  sermons  and  parables;  if  being  re- 
viled he  had  reviled,  if  suffering  he  had  threatened, 
his  superlative  teaching  would  have  fallen  feebly  upon 
the  world  as  having  no  complement  in  superlative 
conduct.  In  short,  had  Jesus  saved  himself  from 
the  cross,  he  would  have  betrayed  his  own  principles, 
and  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  would  never  have  had 
a  commentator.  Had  he  not  perished,  his  teachings 
would  have  perished.  Had  he  saved  himself,  his 
life  would  have  been  in  vain  as  reaching  no  climax 
in  the  actual  self-renunciation  of  love,  so  that  quite 
literally  he  died  in  order  that  he  might  not  die. 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  79 

Thus  on  the  one  hand  there  is  the  explanation  of 
perse'jution,  and  on  the  other,  of  suffering,  or  what 
is  the  same,  of  love  which  is  atoning  and  sacrificial 
because  self-sacrificial.  Under  the  guidance  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  the  apostles  entered  upon  the  same  style 
of  life  and  doctrine  that  had  paved  Christ's  way  to 
the  cross,  and  as  he  was  persecuted  so  were  they. 
In  the  persons  of  the  apostles  the  enemies  of  Christ 
were  still  fighting  Christ. 

This  is  the  best  evidence  of  their  orthodoxy,  or 
leather,  Christodoxy.  There  may  be  minor  differ- 
ences between  the  teaching,  for  instance,  of 
Peter  and  that  of  John;  there  may  be  a  "Petrine 
doctrine,"  and  a  "Pauline  doctrine,"  and  a 
*' Johannean  doctrine,"  but  when  we  see  Peter 
and  John  and  Paul  identified  in  suffering  for  Christ, 
we  know  that  their  enemies  identified  them  in  their 
presentation  of  Christ.  So  far  as  "  the  tendency 
theory"  goes,  all  these  men  had  a  tendency  to  suf- 
fer for  Christ;  or  "the  accommodation  theory," 
they  all  accommodated  themselves  to  their  sufferings 
in  a  very  Christlike  way;  or  "  the  mythical  theory," 
it  is  no  myth  that  the  rulers  and  elders  and  scribes 
united  in  hating  them  as  one  without  attempt- 
ing to  discover  microscopical  differences  of  doctrine 
among  them.  In  the  eyes  of  these  enemies  of  the 
cross,  it  was  a  sufficient  condemnation  that  they 
preached  and  healed  and  won  disciples  in  the  name 
of  Jesus,  and  as  in  the  eyes  of  their  enemies  that 
was  their  sufficient  condemnation,  so  in  the  eyes  of 


80  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

all  generations  of  believers  it  is  their  sufficient  vin- 
dication. The  Apostle  Paul  in  more  than  one  strik- 
ing passage  appeals  to  the  persecutions  he  endured  as 
an  evidence  of  his  loyalty  to  Christ,  claiming  to  be 
not  the  least  of  the  apostles  in  that  his  sufferings 
were  not  the  least,  and  affirming  that  if  he  should 
preach  circumcision,  that  is,  Mosaism  or  Judaism, 
he  would  no  longer  suffer;  '*  Then  is  the  offense 
of  the  cross  ceased."  Speculative  schoolmen,  and 
dogmatic  theologians,  unoccupied  except  in  endless 
wranglings  one  with  another,  and  in  worshiping  their 
own  syllogisms,  have  sought  to  enforce,  each  as  final, 
a  multitude  of  dogmas;  but  the  cross  itself  stands  as 
the  symbol  of  the  one  creed  for  which  Christ  died, 
and  the  offense  of  the  cross  on  the  one  hand,  and 
the  love  of  it  on  the  other,  were  the  primitive  signs 
of   orthodoxy  and  heterodoxy. 

The  first  persecutions  began  timidly  enough. 
Late  in  the  evening  Peter  and  John  were  impris- 
oned. Next  day  there  gathered  together  the  w^hole 
array  of  the  religiously  and  politically  elite  of  Jeru- 
salem, not  to  compliment  these  humble  men  for  hav- 
ing done  a  great  and  kindly  deed,  but  in  self-stultifica- 
tion to  confront  them  with  this  preposterous  question  : 
"By  what  power,  or  by  what  name,  have  ye  done 
this?"  To  ask  this  question  was  to  go  and  touch  a 
mountain  clothed  in  thunders  and  lightnings  more 
terrible  than  Mount  Sinai  in  the  days  when  *'  if 
so  much  as  a  beast  touched  the  mountain,  he  should 
be  stoned  or  thrust  through  with  a  dart."     At  the 


STUDIES    IN   ACTS  81 

touch  there  rushed  out  the  lightning  and  the  thunder 
of  apostolic,  Pentecostal  speech.  ''  By  the  name  of 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  whom  ye  crucified,  whom  God 
raised  from  the  dead,  even  by  him  doth  this  man 
stand  before  you  whole.  This  is  the  stone  which 
was  set  at  naught  of  you  builders,  which  is  become 
the  head  of  the  corner.  Neither  is  there  salvation 
in  any  other;  for  there  is  none  other  name  under 
heaven  given  among  men,  whereby  we  must  be 
saved."  "  Unlearned  and  ignorant  men!"  they  ob- 
served superciliously  of  them.  They  marveled  nev- 
ertheless, and  made  one  other  observation  not  so 
gratifying,  namely,  that  these  "  unlearned  and  igno- 
rant men"  had  been  with  Jesus.  (See  Comments,  Ch. 
iv.  13).  And  one  other  thing  happened  that  was  not 
comforting;  the  man  who  was  healed  stood  there, 
their  well-known  beggar-brother,  who  had  always 
heretofore  contented  himself  with  sitting  humbly  in 
their  presence,  pleading  for  alms.  They  were  non- 
plused. They  must  get  this  man  and  the  two 
tongues  of  fire  out  of  sight  before  they  could  say 
another  word.  Then  they  communed  and  said,  '*A 
notable  miracle  has  been  done,  and  we  cannot  deny 
it."  As  much  as  to  say.  We  would  deny  it  if  we 
could;  we  would  lie  about  it  if  we  could  make  a  lie 
go.  They  must  find  a  way  out  of  it,  however,  and 
this  time  th.ey  touched  more  timidly  their  mountain 
of  terrors.  They  called  the  apostles,  and  com- 
manded them  not  to  preach  in  the  name  of  Jesus ! 
and  threatened  them !    and —  let  them  go !     And  this 


02  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

was  the  stroke  they  got  for  their  pains:  "  Whether 
it  be  right  in  the  sight  of  God  to  hearken  unto  you 
more  than  unto  God,  judge  ye.  For  we  cannot  but 
speak  the  things  we  have  seen  and  heard." 

Evidently  the  authorities  made  a  mistake  in  trying 
to  question  these  men.  After  all,  the  only  way  to 
confront  Christ  is  with  hammer  and  nails;  or  the 
thirteenth  century  Roman  Catholic  way,  shouting, 
"  Kill!  kill!  the  Lord  will  know  his  own;"  or  Abdul 
Hamid's  modern  way,  with  sword  and  gun,  stabbing 
and  shooting  at  leisure,  and  ad  libitum.  Only  in 
such  ways  can  Christ  and  his  apostolic  followers  be 
answered  without  chagrin.  And  such  ways  are  not 
finally  effective,  for  the  dead  Christ  rises,  and  the 
Christian  martyr  only  begins  to  preach  when  his  mar- 
tyrdom is  complete. 

Upon  their  release  the  apostles  went  to  their  own 
company,  grown  to  thousands  now,  and  united  with 
them  in  a  sublime  chorus  of  praise,  ending  with  the 
prayer,  "And  now.  Lord,  behold  their  threatenings; 
and  grant  unto  thy  servants  that  with  all  boldness 
they  may  speak  thy  word,  by  stretching  forth  thy 
hand  to  heal;  and  that  signs  and  wonders  may  be 
done  in  the  name  of  thy  holy  Child  Jesus."  And  the 
Lord  answered  them  with  an  earthquake,  and  with  a 
renewed  enduement  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

Human  threatenings  and  divine  encouragements! 
The  apostles  became  giants,  heroic  and  impetuous. 
They  preached  and  healed  in  Solomon's  porch 
(v.  12),  and  multitudes  of  believers  were  added  to 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS  83 

the  Lord,  and  the  sick  were  brought  from  surround- 
ing cities,  and  the  very  shadow  of  Peter  passing  by 
was  potent  to   heal.     The  summary  judgment  upon 
the  first  deceivers,  Ananias  and  Sapphira,  must  have 
contributed  to  the  dread  of  the  situation  on  the  part 
of  the  authorities,  but  at  last  their  rage  overmastered 
their   prudence,    and   they   threw   the   apostles    into 
prison  (v.  18).     The  next  morning  the  high  priest 
and   the   sect   of  the   Sadducees   called   the   council 
together,  and  enacted  the  following  comedy.     They 
sat  in   state,    a   semi-circular    row   of    grey  beards, 
"tall,  good-looking,  wealthy,  learned  (both  in  divine 
law  and  divers  branches  of  profane  science,  such  as 
medicine,  mathematics,   astronomy,   magic,   idolatry, 
etc.),  in  order  that  they  might  be  able  to  judge   in 
these   matters;"  they  sat  thus,   waiting,   anxious  to 
judge  the  "ignorant  and  unlearned"  men  who  had 
been   with  elesus.     These   men,   not  destined  to  stay 
in  prison  that  night,  were   at  their  appointed  busi- 
ness,   teaching   and    healing   in   the    temple    courts. 
Officers  called  for  them  at  the  prison,  but  it  was  the 
wrong  place.     Doubt  grew  to  astonishment  with  the 
double  report  of  their  absence  from  the  prison,  and 
their  presence  in  the  temple.     They  were  brought, 
however,   "without  violence,"    and   the   high   priest 
passed  upon  them,  unintentionally,  this  high  compli- 
ment:    "Did  not  we  straightly  command  you  that 
you  should  not  teach  in  that  name?     And  behold,  ye 
have  filled  Jerusalem  with  your  doctrine,  and  intend 
to  bring  this  man's  blood  upon  us."     And  the  quick 


84  STUDIES    IN    ACTS 

retort, — "We  ought  to  obey  God  rather  than  men. 
The  God  of  our  fathers  raised  up  Jesus,  whom  ye 
slew  and  hanged  on  a  tree.  Him  hath  God  exalted 
with  his  right  hand  to  be  a  Prince  and  a  Savior,  to 
give  repentance  to  Israel,  and  the  forgiveness  of 
sins.  And  we  are  witnesses  of  these  things;  and  so 
is  the  Holy  Spirit,  whom  God  hath  given  to  them 
that  obey  him." 

This  is  the  model  martyr  speech.  Heroism  can  go 
no  higher.  Paul,  and  Justin  Martyr,  and  Savon- 
arola, and  Martin  Luther,  and  John  Huss,  and  Cran- 
mer,  and  Ridley,  and  Latimer,  and  John  Knox, 
fronting  their  respective  Sanhedrins,  popes  and 
Bloody  Marys,  are  worthy  of  places  in  the  same  class 
with  the  Apostle  Peter,  he  standing  first  among  them 
in  daring  speech  and  deed  for  Christ,  this  being  his 
true  and  only  primacy. 

There  are  two  effects  from  being  "cut  to  the 
heart,"  one  the  Pentecost  effect,  the  other  the  effect 
upon  the  "tall,  good-looking,  learned"  members  of 
the  Sanhedrin.  Murder  was  their  staple  argument 
against  truth.  They  had  murdered  Jesus,  they  were 
now  intent  upon  murdering  the  apostles.  But  the 
prudent  counsels  of  Gamaliel  prevailed.  Perhaps 
they  remembered  Ananias  and  Sapphira;  perhaps, 
the  escape  of  the  prisoners;  perhaps,  the  miracle  of 
tongues;  perhaps,  the  darkness  and  earthquake  and 
rending  of  the  temple  veil ;  perhaps,  the  resurrection 
of  Jesus.  "Tall,  good-looking,  wealthy"  misleaders 
of  the  land,  cowed,  conscienceless,  squirming,  with 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS  85 

no  reason  but  prejudice,  and  no  mercy  but  cowardice, 
on  the  verge  of  perdition,  and  dragging  their  nation 
at  their  heels  like  a  hound  in  the  leash, —  that  is 
what  the  Sanhedrin  had  grown  to  be.  In  its  help- 
lessness and  its  fury  and  its  emptiness  of  everything 
good,  lifting  its  heel  only  to  kick  against  the  goads, 
and  in  its  blindness  crashing 

"Up  against  the  thick-bossed  shield 
Of  God's  judg-ment  in  the  field," 

it  is  the  type  of  all  truckling  senates,  and  cowardly 
congresses,  and  time-serving,  partisan  parliaments. 

*' These  first  persecutions  stimulated  the  zeal  and 
enthusiasm  of  the  first  disciples,  and  braced  them  for 
the  struggle  (iv.  24;  v.  41).  'It  is  better  to  obey 
God  than  man.'  In  this  phrase  we  hear  by  anticipa- 
tion the  farewell  of  the  apostles  to  national  Judaism. 
So,  little  by  little,  Christianity  and  Judaism  came  to 
exhibit  the  hostility  latent  in  their  principles.  Let  a 
man  now  arise  bold  enough  to  disentangle  the  two 
systems  and  set  them  in  antithesis,  and  we  shall  see 
the  great  conflict  begun  by  the  discourses  and  the 
death  of  Jesus  break  forth  again  as  freely  as  before. 
Such  a  man  was  Stephen,  deacon  and  martyr." 

In  this  paragraph,  full  of  discernment,  quoted 
from  Sabatier,  there  are  indicated  the  source  and  the 
direction  of  Jewish  persecution  against  the  growing 
church. 


IV. 

THE    FIRST   MARTYR 


"My  Lord  died  for  my  sins:  shall  I  not  gladly  give  this  poor  life 
for  him?" — Savonarola. 

"When  the  cap  painted  over  with  devils,  and  inscribed  'Here- 
siarch  '  was  put  on  his  brow,  he  murmured,  '  My  Lord  Jesus  wore 
for  my  sake  a  crown  of  thorns ;  shall  I  not  wear  this  lighter  dis- 
grace for  the  sake  of  him?  I  will,  indeed,  and  that  right  gladly.'" 
— John  Hus8. 

"Be  of  good  comfort,  Master  Ridley,  and  play  the  man!  We 
shall  this  day  light  such  a  candle,  by  God's  grace,  in  England,  as  I 
trust  shall  never  be  put  out." — Latimer. 

"Father,  forgive  them;  they  know  not  what  they  do."— iit^ 
xxiii.  34. 


IV. 

THE  FIRST  MARTYR. 

"And  they  stoned  Stephen,  calling  upon  God,  and  saying,  Lord 
Jesus,  receive  my  spirit.  And  he  kneeled  down  and  cried  with  a 
loud  voice,  Lord,  lay  not  this  sin  to  their  charge.  And  when  he 
had  said  this  he  fell  asleep."— 4cte  vii.  59,  60. 

The  martyrdom  of  Stephen  marks  an  epoch  in  the 
history  of  the  first  church.  That  two  or  three  years 
should  have  passed  away  before  the  first  blood  was 
shed  is  noteworthy.  The  shadow  of  the  crucifixion 
still  rested  upon  the  guilty  nation,  and  the  boldness 
of  the  apostles  was  their  best  protection.  At  last  the 
storm  broke,  and  in  its  fury  there  was  a  demand  for 
blood.  In  the  growth  of  the  church,  in  the  apostles' 
unanswerable  logic  of  word  and  deed,  in  the  appear- 
ance of  new  men  of  mark,  such  as  Stephen,  resistless 
in  the  spirit  and  wisdom  of  his  advocacy,  there  was 
enough  to  convert  the  ''children  of  wisdom;'' 
enough  to  enrage  unto  ruin  typical  Pharisees  and 
Sadducees.  Through  the  church  composed  of  regen- 
erate men,  and  crowned  with  miracles  of  speech 
and  deed,  the  Holy  Spirit  became  the  savor  of  life 
unto  life,  and  of  death  unto  death. 

The  first  martyr  was  a  member  of  the  first  com- 
mittee. There  was  a  growing  church  with  its  grow- 
ing  community   of  goods,  and  the  burden  of  their 

89 


90  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

distribution  became  too  great  for  the  apostles. 
Besides,  the  Grecians  were  murmuring  that  their 
widows  were  neglected  in  the  daily  ministration. 
True  Christian  policy  dictated  that  Grecians  should 
be  appointed  to  answer  the  complaints  of  Grecians. 
In  democratic  style,  therefore,  the  people  were  per- 
mitted to  choose  seven  men  from  among  themselves 
for  this  daily  diaconate.  Whom  the  people  chose 
the  apostles  appointed.  Here  is  democracy  with  the 
sanction  of  aristocracy.  Where  the  Holy  Spirit 
guides  government  is  a  minor  matter,  for  over  the 
democracy  of  the  people  and  the  wise  aristocracy  of 
the  apostles  rises  the  autocracy  of  the  Spirit  himself. 
These  seven  men  are  never  called  deacons.  Their 
appointment  was  simply  a  question  of  the  proper 
division  of  labor,  the  apostles  becoming  thereby 
more  especially  and  fittingly  deacons  of  the  word, 
and  the  chosen  seven  especially  and  fittingly  deacons 
of  the  "tables,"  or  counters.  They  were  all  dea- 
cons, servants,  ministers,  but  each  in  his  own  place; 
it  was  all  the  Lord's  work,  and  the}^  were  brethren; 
there  was  no  clerical  caste.  The  distinctive  offices  of 
the  diaconate  and  the  bishopric  arose  at  a  later  date, 
and  seem  never  within  the  limits  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment literature  to  have  been  absolutely  fixed,  for 
men  called  themselves  deacons,  or  overseers,  or  pres- 
byters according  to  what  they  were  doing  at  the  time. 
Even  the  first  seven  are  not  rigidly  fixed  to  the 
diaconate  of  tables.  It  was  not  long  till  two  of  them 
at  least  became  deacons  of  the  word;  Philip  preached 


STUDIES    IN   ACTS  91 

in  Samaria,  and  became  the  evangelist  and  baptist  of 
the  Ethiopian  officer;  and  Stej)hen  attained  to  the 
diaconate  of  wonders  and  miracles  and  irresistible 
speech, — of  martydom  even! 

To  infer,  therefore,  that  the  appointment  of  the 
seven  is  a  precedent  for  the  ordaining  of  deacons 
such  as  are  now  found  in  various  congregations  of 
Christians  is  unwarranted.  The  whole  procedure  is 
rather  a  precedent  for  the  appointment  of  a  commit- 
tee to  meet  an  emergency.  Is  there  a  needful  thing 
to  be  done?  Appoint  a  proper  person,  or  company 
of  persons,  to  do  it.  That  is  the  double  dictate  of 
common  prudence  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

Carrying  out  the  supposition  previously  made  that 
the  Jews  of  Jerusalem  were  overawed  by  the  scenes 
of  the  crucifixion  and  of  Pentecost,  it  is  interesting 
to  note  that  the  murder  of  the  first  martyr  was 
wrought  at  the  instigation  of  foreign  Jews,  or  possi- 
bly even  of  proselytes.  "There  arose  certain  of 
the  synagogue  of  the  Libertines,  and  Cyrenians, 
and  Alexandrians,  and  of  them  of  Cilicia,  and  of 
Asia,  disputing  with  Stephen."  There  were  num- 
bers of  synagogues  in  Jerusalem,  the  meeting-places 
respectively  of  such  foreign  Jews  as  are  named  in  the 
text.  Equally  zealous  with  the  Jerusalem  Jews  for 
"the  holy  place,"  and  "the  law,"  and  "the  cus- 
toms which  Moses  delivered,"  they  had  not  yet  expe- 
rienced the  terrors  of  opposing  Christ  and  his  apos- 
tles. The  dread  of  the  name  of  the  Nazarene  had 
not  yet  settled  down  upon  them.     They  were  fresh  in 


92  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

the  work  of  persecution,  and  to  them  Satan  trans- 
ferred it.  The  whole  of  the  chosen  people,  native 
born  to  Judsea  and  foreign  born,  seemed  fated  to 
stain  their  hands  in  the  blood  of  Jesus  and  the  proto- 
martyrs. 

The  charge  against  Stephen  is  a  compliment  to 
him.  It  is  an  evidence  of  his  discernment.  Already 
he  saw  further  than  the  apostles  themselves  into  the 
genius  of  the  Gospel  and  the  destinies  of  the  nation. 
There  was  antagonism  between  the  Gospel  and  the 
law  of  Moses  at  many  points,  and  if  Christianity 
triumphed  Judaism  must  suffer  defeat.  The  new 
wine  could  not  be  put  into  old  bottles.  The  apostles 
were  true  to  Christ  and  the  leadings  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  but  they  were  also  traditionalists,  and  as  such 
they  still  "went  up  into  the  temple  at  the  hour  of 
prayer  to  worship,"  and  were  doubtful  about  admit- 
ting the  Gentiles  into  the  church  except  on  a  Jewish 
basis,  and  perhaps,  loving  both  the  old  and  the  new, 
fondly  hoped  for  some  providential  reconciliation 
between  the  new  cloth  and  the  old  garment.  But 
the  enemies  of  the  cross,  hating  it,  saw  its  tendencies 
more  clearly  through  their  hatred  than  the  apostles 
through  their  love.  Evidently  Stephen  saw  precisely 
what  his  persecutors  saw,  namely,  that  there  was  no 
possible  reconciliation  between  the  spirit  of  the  Jews 
and  the  spirit  of  Jesus;  between  his  liberty  and  their 
bigotry;  between  his  mercy  and  their  cruelty,  his 
love  and  their  hatred,  his  culture  and  their  cult. 
Stephen  and  his  enemies,  therefore,  occupy  the  same 


STUDIES    IN   ACTS  93 

standpoint  as  to  their  prevision  of  results  should 
Christianity  triumph.  He  and  they  differ  only  in 
attitude,  and  the  difference  is  deadly. 

The  falsity  of  their  evidence  against  him  consists 
in  this,  that  they  attributed  to  him  as  blasphemy 
what  he  was  preaching,  either  implicitly  or  explicitly, 
as  inevitable  from  the  standpoint  of  Gospel  truth. 
He  was  accused  of  a  double  blasphemy,  first  against 
"the  holy  place,"  and  second,  against  "the  law" 
(vi.  13).  His  speech'  is  an  admirable  answer  to  this 
accusation,  and  should  be  studied  wholly  in  view  of 
it.  It  is  biblical,  and  it  is  a  rhetorical  model.  It 
rushes  on  like  a  stream,  swollen  and  impassioned. 
It  is  historical,  but  not  accurately  so.  Some  of  its 
statements  are  not  in  keeping  with  the  records,  as, 
for  instance,  when  it  is  said  that  Abraham  bought 
the  burying  ground  in  Sychem  of  the  sons  of  Emmor, 
whereas  it  was  Jacob  who  made  this  purchase,  Abra- 
ham having  bought  the  cave  of  Machpelah  from 
Ephron  the  Hittite.  (See  Comments.)  Twice  the 
Septuagint  is  quoted  rather  than  our  present  Hebrew 
text,  and  Moses  is  declared  "learned  in  all  the  wis- 
dom of  the  Egyptians,"  though  the  Old  Testament 
is  silent  as  to  that,  as  it  is  likewise  with  regard  to  his 
"trembling"  at  the  burning  bush.  It  is  an  inspired 
speech,  all  but  its  jots  and  tittles.  Something  may 
be  chargeable  to  the  reporter,  and  besides,  mere 
technical  inspiration  is  no  inspiration  at  all.  We 
must  get  away  from  that  if  we  would  entertain  the 
Bible's  own  view  of  its  own  inspiration.     The  quota- 


94  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

tions  of  Jesus  are  not  always  verbatim,  but  they  are 
none  the  less  divine.  On  great  moral  questions,  such 
as  the  abolition  of  slavery,  or  the  prohibition  of  the 
liquor  traffic,  we  may  not  have  a  single  text  to  bring 
face  to  face  with  our  problem  in  such  a  way  as  to 
make  it  say,  "Thou  shalt  not  enslave  thy  brother," 
or  "Thou  shalt  not  sell  wine  and  beer,"  yet  we  may 
feel  that  we  have  the  whole  Bible  on  our  side,  say- 
ing, with  all  the  lightnings  and  thunderings  of  its 
Mosaic  inspiration,  and  with  all  the  blood-marked 
emphasis  of  its  Gospel  revelations,  *'  Thou  shalt 
not."  It  is  the  soul  of  the  Bible  that  is  inspired, 
and  its  body  is  the  best  that  can  be  given  to  it  in 
human  speech. 

The  inaccuracies  of  the  speech  are  evidences  of  its 
genuineness.  A  second  century  writer,  at  leisure  in 
his  study,  with  a  method  by  the  end,  would  have 
taken  pains  to  be  verbally  exact.  As  the  speech 
stands,  it  bears  every  mark  of  having  been  delivered 
to  such  an  audience  as  the  Jewish  Sanhedrin  in  the 
early  history  of  the  first  church,  and  the  view-point 
of  it  is  worthy  of  the  forerunner  of  the  Apostle  Paul. 
True  at  once  to  the  trend  of  Jewish  history  and  to 
the  genius  of  the  Gospel,  full  of  impetuosity  and  of 
sudden  adaptations  to  the  mood  of  the  hearers, 
bristling  with  indirect  reproofs  of  the  localized  idea 
of  God  and  his  providence,  and  containing,  in  the 
language  of  Moses  himself,  one  crowning  rebuke  of 
their  rejection   of  Jesus — it  is  no  wonder  that  this 


STUDIES    IX    ACTS  95 

sermon   had    the    effect    of    a   fire-brand    upon   the 
already  overheated  tempers  of  its  auditors. 

The  early  part  of  the  speech,  down  to  the  thirty- 
fifth  verse,  is  fitted  to  chain  the  attention  of  the 
Sanhedrin,  and  to  prove  that  Stephen  held  in  rever- 
ence the  history  of  his  people  and  the  law  of  Moses. 
He  had  been  charged  with  blasphemy;  here  all  is 
reverent.  But  with  the  thirty-fifth  verse  there 
begins  an  application  of  history  that  is  keener  than  a 
two-edged  sword.  Moses,  whom  God  had  chosen, 
through  whom  he  showed  wonders  in  the  wilderness 
for  forty  years,  and  through  whom  he  spoke  on 
Mount  Sinai,  their  fathers  had  rejected;  they  made  a 
calf  and  worshiped  it,  and  turned  back  in  their 
hearts  to  Egypt,  and  took  up  the  tabernacle  of 
Moloch.  It  was  terrible  to  remind  the  proud  mem- 
bers of  the  Jewish  council  of  their  nation's  historic 
rejection  of  Moses,  and  the  idolatries  of  their  fathers; 
it  was  still  more  terrible  to  remind  them  of  a  pre- 
diction that  this  divinely  accepted,  humanly  rejected 
Moses  had  made,  namely,  that  God  would  raise  up  un- 
to them  of  their  brethren  a  prophet  like  unto  himself, 
whom  in  all  things  they  should  hear,  and  to  apply 
this  prediction  to  Jesus,  and  to  say  to  them,  '*  Ye 
stiffnecked  and  uncircumcised  in  heart  and  ears,  ye 
do  always  resist  the  Holy  Spirit:  as  your  fathers  did, 
so  do  ye.  Which  of  the  prophets  have  not  your 
fathers  persecuted?  and  they  have  slain  them  wiiich 
shewed  before  of  the  coming  of  the  Just  One;  of 
whom  ye  have  been  now  the  betrayers  and  murder- 


96  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

ers:  Who  have  received  the  law  by  the  disposition 
of  angels,  and  have  not  kept  it." 

The  Christological  standpoint  of  this  proto-martyr 
is  the  same  as  that  of  the  Apostle  Peter  on  the  day  of 
Pentecost,  and  his  boldness  in  denouncing  the  lead- 
ers of  the  land  as  the  murderers  of  Jesus  parallels 
that  of  the  chiefest  apostles.  This  application  of 
history  and  denunciation  of  the  death  of  the  Savior 
at  their  hands,  cut  like  a  saw  to  the  hearts  of  men 
who  once  had  cried,  in  thoughtless,  heartless  rage, 
"His  blood  be  on  us,  and  on  our  children." 

The  inspiration  of  Stephen  at  this  moment  carried 
him  beyond  the  range  of  daring  and  triumphant 
speech.  Full  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  he  "looked  up 
steadfastly  into  heaven,  and  saw  the  glory  of  God, 
and  Jesus  standing  on  the  right  hand  of  God." 
Granted  thus  at  the  same  moment  a  Theophany  and 
a  Christophany,  he  cried  out,  saying,  "Behold,  I  see 
the  heavens  opened,  and  the  Son  of  Man  standing  on 
the  right  hand  of  God."  This  should  have  overawed 
his  enemies,  and  turned  them  from  their  bitterness, 
for  if  before  he  began  his  speech  they  that  looked 
upon  him  "  saw  his  face  as  it  had  been  the  face  of  an 
angel,"  what  must  have  been  its  rapture  in  this 
moment  of  ecstatic  vision!  But  a  height  of  per- 
versity, second  only,  as  it  would  seem,  to  that  which 
mocked  the  dying  Savior,  was  revealed  in  them  when 
they  cried  out,  and  stopped  their  ears,  and  rushed 
upon  him,  and  cast  him  out  of  the  city  and  stoned 
him. 


STUDIES    IN   ACTS  97 

The  style  of  his  dying  was  Christlike.  If  men 
were  not  able  to  resist  the  wisdom  and  power  of  his 
speaking,  how  could  they  resist  the  Christliness  of 
his  dying!  There  is  an  eloquence  of  action  mightier 
than  the  eloquence  of  diction.  But  when  human 
speech  has  assumed  its  highest  form  in  prayer  and 
forgiveness,  and  when  prayer  and  forgiveness  and 
trust  are  sealed  unto  eternal  glory  by  calm  and 
sweet  and  heroic  dying,  the  plea  to  man  by  man  thus 
made  is  irresistible,  except  by  those  whose  hearts  are 
stone.  They  stopped  their  ears,  they  rushed  upon 
him,  and  the  stones  with  which  they  crushed  him 
were  not  so  hard  as  the  hearts  with  which  they  hated 
him. .  And  these  were  the  hearts  that  Jesus  saw, 
harder  than  stone,  flintier  than  the  rock,  more  cruel 
than  death,  full  of  prejudice,  big  with  hatred,  and 
alive  and  throbbing  only  with  murder,  when  he  gave 
utterance  to  his  parables  of  judgment,  and  his  terri- 
ble simile  of  whited  sepulchers  and  dead  men's 
bones,  and  his  awful  philippic  against  Pharisaic 
hypocrites,  fated  to  the  condemnation  of  hell;  ah! 
these  were  the  hearts  he  saw  when  he  mourned  over 
Jerusalem  and  foretold  her  destruction.  Had  hell 
been  discoverable  no  otherwhere  in  the  universe, 
Jesus  would  have  looked  into  these  hearts  and  found 
it  there.  Full  of  the  conceptions  of  hatred,  and 
pregnant  with  bloodshed,  it  was  from  these  hearts 
that  there  came  forth  in  the  days  of  the  siege  of 
their  "holy  place"  internal  discord,  high-handed 
revenge,   secret   assassination,    public   brawls,   street 

7 


98  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

fights,  multiplied  murders,  and  all  the  untold  woes 
of  fanatical  rapine,  which,  together  with  the  siege, 
have  made  the  name  of  their  city  as  significant  of 
cursing  and  doom,  on  the  one  hand,  as  it  is  of  peace 
and  *'an  eternal  weight  of  glory,"  on  the  other. 

The  death  of  Stephen  had  not  even  the  mock  but 
finished  forms  of  law  for  its  sanction,  as  in  the  case 
of  Jesus.  The  members  of  the  council,  whose  busi- 
ness it  was  to  protect  life;  whose  maxim  was,  "The 
Sanhedrin  is  to  save,  not  to  destroy  life;"  whose 
president  at  the  beginning  of  the  trial  "solemnly 
admonished  the  witnesses,  pointing  out  the  precious- 
ness  of  human  life,  earnestly  beseeching  them  care- 
fully and  calmly  to  reflect  whether  they  had  not 
overlooked  some  circumstance  which  might  favor  the 
innocence  of  the  accused;" — the  members  of  this 
august  council,  composed  of  "middle-aged  men,  tali, 
good-looking,  wealthy,  learned — none  of  them  very 
old  persons,  nor  eunuchs,  nor  proselytes,  nor  nethi- 
nim,"  failed  to  render  a  decision  at  all.  According 
to  custom,  they  should  have  waited  till  the  next  day 
before  pronouncing  Stephen  guilty.  But  they  lost 
their  gravity,  and  stopped  their  ears,  and  howled, 
and  rushed  upon  their  victim,  and  the  Sanhedrin 
became  a  mob. 

They  should  have  credit  for  quick  work.  The 
refinements  of  persecution  were  not  yet  invented. 
They  did  not  cut  off  his  ears,  or  slit  his  nose,  or 
brand  him  with  hot  irons,  or  stretch  him  on  racks,  or 
hang  him  with  a  strappado,  or  blow  him  up  to  burst- 


STUDIES    IN   ACTS  99 

ing  with  a  bellows,  or  roast  him  at  a  slow  fire,  or 
crown  him  as  heresiarch  with  painted  devils  on  his 
cap.  In  a  way  blunt,  and  straightforward  enough, 
they  crushed  him  with  stones.  The  above  more 
deliberate  and  scientific  and  satisfactory  ways  of 
defending  the  faith,  and  reclaiming  heretics,  and 
propagating  the  Gospel,  were  left  to  the  sanctified, 
inventive  genius  of  Roman  Catholicism.  In  such 
ways  the  "Holy  Father  Infallible,"  and  "The  Holy 
Mother  Church,"  have  shown  the  world  how  to  chas- 
tise their  children  out  of  paternal  love  for  them,  and 
with  tender  solicitation  for  their  spiritual  welfare. 
With  such  beneficent  chastisements  the  "  Holy 
Mother"  has  murdered — the  astonishing  estimate 
is — fifty  millions   of   her   children! 

But  back  of  all  persecution,  and  more  astonishing 
than  it,  and  sadder,  lies  the  utter  misconception  of 
the  genius  of  the  Gospel  and  the  method  of  Jesus. 
From  the  standpoint  of  Christ's  commission  the 
heresiarch  is  he  who  does  not  go  and  teach  and 
preach  and  baptize  in  the  name  and  the  spirit  of 
Christ;  and  from  the  standpoint  of  the  cross  the 
heresiarch  is  he  who  sins  against  the  law  of  love. 
Under  Christ  we  have  no  weapons  but  truth  and  love 
and  forbearance  and  forgiveness;  guided  by  him  we 
have  no  appeal  but  to  the  minds  and  hearts  and 
consciences  of  beings  like-minded  and  like-hearted 
with  ourselves,  and  conscience-crowned  as  well  as 
we.  Education  was  the  method  of  Jesus.  His 
society  is  a  teaching  brotherhood.     To  him  the  miter 


100  STUDIES    IN    ACTS 

and  the  crown  were  equally  repugnant.  He  dis- 
dained the  sword,  and  healed  its  wounds.  His  death 
is  the  seal  upon  his  life  of  a  true  teacher's  limitless 
love,  and  his  resurrection  is  proof  of  a  perfect  teach- 
er's rightful  regnancy.  He  is  not  persecutor,  and 
therefore  destroyer,  but  he  is  educator,  and  therefore 
Redeemer.  Master  of  masters  in  moral  and  spiritual 
realms  he  cries  to  his  followers  with  the  emphasis  of 
pierced  hands  and  thorn-marked  brow,  '*  Go  teach." 
His  misrepresentatives,  enthroned,  crowned,  scep- 
tered,  mitered  in  Caesar's  fashion,  have  spoken  their 
anathemas  and  their  excommunications  with  threat- 
enings  of  hell  and  the  horrors  of  the  battlefield,  and 
out  of  hearts  full  of  the  hatred  from  which  murder 
springs,  they  have  cried,  ''Go  kill." 

Seven  times  on  the  cross  Jesus  opened  his  lips,  and 
there  continued  to  speak  as  never  man  spake.  Two 
of  his  matchless  utterances  find  close  resemblance  in 
the  w^ords  of  his  dying  disciple:  "Father,  forgive 
them,  for  they  know  not  what  they  do;"  "Father, 
into  thy  hands  I  commend  my  spirit."  Oh,  the 
heights  and  depths  of  Christ's  manward  love  and 
forgiveness,  and  of  his  Godward  love  and  trust! 
Heights  and  depths  measured,  yet  measureless  by 
these  last  prayers  of  his  passion!  We  in  our  days  of 
delight,  repeating  our  easy  and  customary  forms  of 
prayer,  attain  too  often  only  to  the  semblance  of  love 
and  forgiveness  and  trust.  But  he  who  through  days 
of  distress,  or  amidst  a  storm  of  crushing,  mangling 
stones  prays   thus  for  his  enemies  and  himself  has 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  101 

attained  to  the  reality  of  discipleship  in  the  school  of 
Christ.  The  first  martyr  claimed  by  right  of  Christly 
dying,  Christly  glory. 

*'And  they  stoned  Stephen,  calling  upon  God,  and 
saying.  Lord  Jesus,  receive  my  spirit.  And  he  kneeled 
down,  and  cried  with  a  loud  voice.  Lord,  lay  not  this 
sin  to  their  charge.  And  when  he  had  said  this  he 
fell  asleep." 


V. 

THE   FIRST   GENTILE  CONVERT 


"Calvary  made  an  irrevocable  breach  between  the  religion  of  the 

past  and  of    the  future.    Jesus,   in   dying,   guaranteed   his    work 

against  any  unintelligent  or  timid  reaction.    From  the  outset  he 

planted  his  cross  between  Christianity  and  Judaism;  and  so  often 

as  his  disciples  are  tempted  to  retrace  their   steps,  they  find  it 

placed  as  an  impassable  barrier  between  them  and  their  nation. 

The  cross,  in  fact,  was  the  real  motive  principle  of  all  the  progress 

which  ensued ;  it  was  this  which  gave  impulse  and  impetus  to  the 

primitive  church,   and  drove  it  irresistibly  beyond    the  limits  of 

Judaism. " — Sabatier. 

104 


TEE  FIRST  GENTILE  CONVERT. 

"Tliou  wen  test  in  to  men  uncircumcised,  and  didst  eat  with 
them." — Acts  xi.  3. 

"God  hath  shewed  me  that  I  should  not  call  any  man  common 
or  unclean." — Acts  x.  28. 

The  conversion  of  Cornelius  and  his  household 
equals  in  its  progressive  significance  the  miracle  of 
Pentecost.  Once  more  the  Apostle  Peter,  endued 
with  the  Holy  Spirit,  stands  in  the  forefront  of  the 
evangelistic  movement.  The  keys  of  the  kingdom 
are  in  this  man's  keeping,  and  it  his  province  to  go 
forward  opening  doors  of  prophecy,  and  of  liberty, 
and  of  salvation  till  the  Gentiles  come  to  Christ's 
light,  and  their  kings  to  the  brightness  of  his  glory. 

On  the  day  of  Pentecost  the  Church  of  Christ  was 
born ;  on  the  day  of  the  conversion  of  Cornelius  she 
reached  her  majority.  From  that  time  she  was  ready 
to  go  forth  *' conquering  and  to  conquer."  On  that 
day  she  cast  aside  the  leading  strings  of  Judaism, 
and  declared  herself  equipped  for  heavenly  minis- 
tries among  the  Gentile  races  of  all  the  world.  In 
the  conversion  of  Cornelius  the  young  church  gave 
the  challenge  of  her  spirituality  and  universality  to 
decadent  Judaism  and  the  cramped  and  cramping 
forms  of  the  Mosaic  ritual.     Through  the  lips  of  her 

105 


106  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

chosen  first  apostle,  moving  still  under  the  impulse 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  she  asserted  her  heavenly  queen- 
liness,  and  published  at  the  same  time  the  platform 
of  her  world-wide  regnancy,  saying,  "God  is  no 
respecter  of  persons;  but  in  every  nation  he  that 
feareth  him  and  worketh  righteousness  is  accepted 
with  him." 

"All  zones  are  one  seed-field, 
And  one  the  fostering  sky; 
Best  germs  the  ripened  ages  yield 
On  world-wide  pinions  fly. 

"High  human  hearts  are  one, 
And  one  their  God  above; 
And  genial  every  star  and  sun 
To  faith  and  hope  and  love." 

Perhaps  a  period  of  ten  years  lies  between  the 
conversions  of  Pentecost  and  the  conversion  of  Cor- 
nelius, but  in  the  plans  of  the  Savior  these  two  acts 
belong  to  the  same  drama.  The  full  obedience  of 
the  commission  requires  them  both  as  the  inception 
of  Christ's  world-wide  kingdom.  The  second  chap- 
ter of  the  book  of  Acts  is  not  complete  without  the 
tenth,  and  the  two  rise  up  from  among  the  others  in 
a  kind  of  lonely  majesty.  In  both  there  is  the  pres- 
ence of  the  Apostle  Peter;  in  both  the  Holy  Spirit 
speaks  miraculously;  in  both  Jesus  is  presented  as 
the  crucified  and  risen  Lord  and  Christ;  in  both 
there  is  the  offer  of  the  remission  of  sins  through 
the  acceptance  of  Jesus  as  Savior;  in  both  there 
breathes  the  spirit  of  prayer  wherein  souls  are  seek- 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  107 

ing  a  higher  life,  and  the  culmination  of  both  is  in 
the  ]oy  of  conversion. 

Yet  these  two  chapters  differ  by  the  breadth  of 
whole  horizons.  The  first  of  them  speaks  to  us  of 
the  inception  of  Christ's  kingdom;  the  second,  of  its 
extension;  if  the  first  means  birth,  the  second  means 
breadth ;  if  the  first  indicates  a  center,  the  second  is 
a  circumference;  if  the  first  shows  us  a  divinely 
commanded  "beginning  at  Jerusalem,"  the  second 
enters  upon  the  divinely  prescribed  *'  uttermost  parts 
of  the  earth."  It  was  a  new  day  in  philosophy  when 
the  law  of  gravitation,  applying  to  an  ap'ple,  was  seen 
also  in  its  application  to  the  solar  system  and  the 
constellations.  Likewise  it  was  a  new  day  in  the 
church  when  the  Jerusalem  Christians  were  con- 
strained by  the  account  that  the  Apostle  Peter  gave 
them  of  the  conversion  of  Cornelius  to  "hold  their 
peace,  and  glorify  God,  saying.  Then  hath  God  also 
to  the  Gentiles  granted  repentance  unto  life." 

Cornelius  was  a  Gentile,  and  without  becoming  a 
Jew  he  became  a  Christian.  That  is  the  point  of 
most  significance  in  our  present  study.  On  the  high- 
way leading  from  Jerusalem  to  Gaza  Philip  had 
preached  to  the  Ethiopian  officer,  and  close  by  the 
road,  in  a  lake  of  water  lying  in  the  Wady  el-Hasy, 
according  to  the  suggestion  of  Edersheim,  he  had  bap- 
tized him.  But  this  man  was  a  proselyte,  and  he  had 
been  to  Jerusalem  to  worship,  and  there  was  therefore 
nothing  irregular  about  his  reception  into  the  church. 
Furthermore,  both   Philip   and   Peter  had   preached 


108  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

among  the  Samaritans,  and  many  of  them  had  been 
brought  to  Christ,  and  churches  had  been  established 
among  them,  as  shown  by  the  enumeration  in  the 
thirty-first  verse  of  the  ninth  chapter  of  Acts.  The 
Samaritans,  however,  were  semi-Jews,  and  they  were 
a  circumcised  people.  But  the  conversion  of  Cor- 
nelius and  his  household  was  unique.  He  and  his 
were  publicly  and  avowedly  Gentiles ;  they  had  never 
Deen  either  to  Gerizim  or  to  Jerusalem  to  worship ; 
they  gave  no  attendance  at  the  altar;  they  had  no 
ipart  or  lot  or  pride  in  the  lineage  of  Abraham ;  they 
were  Gentiles,  pagans,  dogs,  Romans.  To  receive 
them  into  the  fellowship  of  the  church  without  sub- 
mission to  the  requirements  of  the  Mosaic  law  meant 
the  abrogation  of  that  law,  and  this  to  the  Jew 
meant  the  height  of  treason.  The  Jews  charged  Ste- 
phen with  saying  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  would  destroy 
their  Holy  Place,  and  change  the  customs  that  Moses 
had  delivered  to  them,  and  upon  that  charge  they 
stoned  him  to  death.  In  the  conversion  of  Cor- 
nelius, therefore,  there  were  the  beginnings  of  revo- 
lution, possibly  .of  disaster  to  the  young  church,  cer- 
tainly of  those  misunderstandings  and  explanations 
and  persecutions  and  alienations  which  are  the  birth- 
pains  of  liberty,  and  the  growing-pains  of  progress. 
From  one  view-point  it  seems  like  an  enigma  of 
Providence  that  such  a  fruitful  cause  of  dissension 
should  have  been  introduced  so  early  into  the  church, 
and  that  the  Jewish  and  Gentile  Christians  should, 
within    twenty  years  of    Christ's   crucifixion,    stand 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS  109 

fronting  each  other  in  determined  antagonism.  But 
victory  is  the  fruit  of  battle,  and  the  way  of  peace  is 
necessarily  the  way  of  the  sword.?  It  was  in  this 
sense  that  the  Prince  of  Peace  said,  "I  come  to 
bring  a  sword  on  the  earth."  The  Gospel,  universal 
in  its  genius,  must  become  universal  in  its  methods, 
and  in  doing  so  it  must  break  away  from  the  barriers 
of  carnalism  and  formalism  and  localism  and  tribal- 
ism. Jerusalem  could  never  be  the  religious  capital 
of  the  world;  the  Jewish  altar,  smoking  with  the 
blood  of  rams,  could  never  give  to  the  world  the  sweet 
assurance  of  the  remission  of  sins;  the  Jewish  Sab- 
bath, burdened  with  numberless  slavish  and  super- 
stitious precepts  of  Eabbinism,  could  never  convey 
to  the  world  the  joy,  the  freedom,  and  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  Lord's  Day,  bearing  with  it  round  the 
globe  once  weekly  the  eucharistic  reminders  of  the 
Lord's  death;  the  negative  precepts  uttered  by  the 
thunders  of  Sinai  could  never  rise  to  the  divine 
altruism  of  the  Golden  Rule;  nor  could  the  feasts 
and  fasts  and  tithings  and  sprinklings  of  a  mere 
ethnic  cult  ever  become  of  world-wide,  spiritual  con- 
cern. "The  law  was  given  by  Moses,  but  grace  and 
truth  came  by  Jesus  Christ."  One  thing  or  the 
other:  the  new  movement  must  settle  down  within 
the  narrow  dimensions  of  the  old,  or  it  must  break 
away  like  a  growing  child  from  his  cast-off  garments. 
*'  Moses  for  a  people;  Christ  for  the  world."  Look- 
ing back  upon  all  the  dreadful  history  that  came 
upon  the  Jews  during  the  generation  that  saw  Jesus 


110  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

perish  on  the  cross,  one  must  see  that  had  the  new 
movement  confined  itself  to  the  limits  of  Judaism  it 
must  inevitably  have  been  buried,  like  a  child  in  the 
grave  of  its  mother.  Th6  salvation  of  the  movement 
was  in  its  enlargement.  The  historic  necessities  were 
that  the  Church  of  Christ  should  extend  her  offer  of 
salvation  to  all  the  world,  or  be  herself  condemned 
to  destruction.  She  must  seek  to  save  the  nations  if 
she  would  be  saved  by  them.  The  time  had  come 
when  the  apostles  of  the  cross  must  go  boldly  to  Cor- 
nelius, looking  out  from  his  fortress  in  Csesarea  upon 
the  waters  of  the  Mediterranean;  to  Lydia,  praying 
upon  the  banks  of  the  Gangites;  to  the  jailer  in  Phil- 
ippi,  amidst  his  granite  walls  and  iron  bars,  and 
say  to  each  and  all  of  them,  "These  fortresses  and 
river  banks  and  prison  walls  are  as  holy  as  the  Holy 
of  Holies  when  here,  through  Christ,  you  present 
your  bodies  as  living  sacrifices  unto  God,  esteeming 
such  sacrifice  reasonable  service."  The  Holy  Spirit 
saw  fit  to  make  Cornelius  the  occasion  of  such 
enlargement,  and  the  first  fruits  of  it,  and  the 
Apostle  Peter  the   instrument   of   it. 

That  we  may  appreciate  these  two  men  in  their 
meeting  and  their  mutual  relations,  we  must  first 
study  them  apart,  remembering  that  each,  on  his 
pathway  to  find  the  other,  was  under  the  guidance 
of  the  Holy  Spirit.  God  had  these  men  in  training 
for  their  meeting.  As  typical  Jew  and  typical  Gen- 
tile, yet  prepared,  the  one  for  the  declaration,  the 
other  for  the   reception  of   the  Gospel,  they  meet; 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  111 

and  thereafter  they  stand  before  the  world,  not  as 
representatives  of  the  deplorable  schisms  and 
hatreds  among  men,  but  as  types  together,  mutual 
and  fraternal,  of  the  "new  man  in  Christ." 

The  Jews  esteemed  it  their  religious  and  political 
duty  to  hate  the  Gentiles.  From  the  days  of  Abraham 
their  theory  and  their  practice  had  united  in  making 
them  an  exclusive  people,  and  from  the  days  of  the 
captivity  in  Babylon  they  were  a  fanatical  people, 
hating  all  not  Jews,  and  courting  their  hatred.  By 
the  rivers  of  Babylon  they  dreamed  and  sang  of 
revenge,  but  never  of  forgiveness,  saying  with  awful 
imprecation,  "O  daughter  of  Babylon,  who  art  to  be 
destroyed,  happy  shall  he  be  that  rewardeth  thee  as 
thou  hast  served  us !  Happy  shall  he  be  that  taketh 
and  dasheth  thy  little  ones  against  the  stones!" 

There  was  a  tradition  that  at  Mount  Sinai  the  Jews 
were  cleansed  from  the  impurities  that  cling  to  man- 
kind by  reason  of  the  relations  between  Eve  and  the 
serpent,  and  which  still  cling  to  all  the  rest  of  man- 
kind. They  said  God  cares  more  for  one  Israelite 
than  for  all  the  rest  of  the  world.  Gentile  babes 
were  unclean  from  their  birth.  The  Mishna  forbids 
aid  to  a  Gentile  mother  in  her  hour  of  need,  or  the 
giving  of  nourishment  to  her  new-born  babe,  lest  a 
child  should  be  brought  up  for  idolatry.  One  maxim 
reached  the  height  of  scowling  hatred:  "The  best 
among  the  Gentiles,  kill;  the  best  among  serpents, 
crush  its  head." 

Chosen   of  God  as  a  medium  and  a  means  to  a 


112  STUDIES    IN    ACTS 

beneficent  end,  they  mistook  themselves  as  being  the 
beginning  and  the  end  of  God's  purposes,  and  con- 
cluding that  he  had  cast  off  all  other  people,  they 
settled  down  into  the  rankest  of  Pharisaical  self- 
complacency,  and  from  the  standpoint  both  of  their 
hatred  and  their  exclusiveness,  they  interpreted  their 
prophecies  concerning  the  promised  Messiah.  Dur- 
ing the  generation  of  which  we  are  speaking,  the 
Romans  were  their  special  objects  of  hatred  because 
they  were  the  political  lords  of  the  land,  and  were, 
looked  upon  as  being  the  despoilers  of  the  glory  of 
Israel.  Hating  Rome  worse  than  sin,  and  Caesar 
worse  than  Satan,  they  naturally  planned  for  a  Mes- 
siah who  should  be  a  prince,  and  a  soldier,  and  a 
political  redeemer.  How  absolutely  were  they  dis- 
appointed in  Christ!  He  rebuked  their  hatred  while 
he  healed  their  sick  ones,  refused  their  proffered 
crowns  while  he  fed  their  multitudes,  and  preached 
forgiveness  while  he  paid  tribute  to  Cassar,  till  at  last 
they  said,  '*If  we  let  him  thus  alone,  the  Romans  will 
come  and  take  away  our  place  and  nation." 

Now  the  Apostle  Peter  was  a  true  Jew,  born  and 
bred  with  all  the  inherited  and  inculcated  antipathies 
of  his  race.  Hence  his  rebuke  of  Jesus,  as  recorded 
in  the  sixteenth  chapter  of  Matthew,  and  his  mourn- 
ful but  inevitable  denial,  as  recorded  in  the  twenty- 
sixth  chapter.  Hence  also  his  pathetic  and  patriotic 
question  at  the  ascension  of  Jesus:  '*Wilt  thou  at 
this  time  restore  again  the  kingdom  to  Israel  9 ' ' 
Up  to  the  time  of  Pentecost  this  man  had  had  line 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  113 

upon  line,  precept  upon  precept;  yet  there  was 
required  a  miracle  of  spiritual  guidance  lest  he 
should  speak  amiss,  and  launch  forth  upon  a  crusade 
against  the  Gentile  enemies  of  his  people  and  nation 
instead  of  proclaiming  the  spiritual  triumphs  and 
heavenly  promises  of  the  true  Messiah.  But  the 
heights  of  heavenly-directed  speech  attained  by  this 
apostle  on  Pentecost  are  to  be  surpassed,  should  he 
still  submit  to  that  Spirit  which  was  guiding  him 
into  all  truth. 

When  Cornelius  sent  for  Peter,  he  was  '*  lodged  in 
the  house  of  one  Simon,  a  tanner,  whose  house  was 
by  the  seaside."  With  this  tanner  he  had  lodged  r> 
many  days,  unconscious  that  this  was  a  preparation 
for  his  further  departure  from  old  prejudices,  and 
for  the  braving  of  uncleannesses.  Tanners  were 
esteemed  unclean.  This  man's  house  was  by  the 
seaside,  possibly  for  convenience,  but  certainly  be- 
cause he  was  not  permitted  to  live  in  the  town  of 
Joppa.  The  rabbis  said,  "It  is  impossible  that  the 
world  can  do  without  tanners,  but  woe  unto  that  man 
who  is  a  tanner!  "  They  released  a  widow  from  the 
law  requiring  her  to  marry  her  deceased  husband's 
brother,  if  that  brother  happened  to  be  a  tanner. 
'*He  is  lodged  in  the  house  of  one  Simon,  a  tanner." 
It  needed  no  other  description;  everybody  knew 
where  that  house  was,  for  everybody  was  accustomed 
to  shun  it.  And  that  Peter,  the  primate  of  the  apos- 
tles, should  bear  the  stigma  of  such  lodgings,  shows 
that  he  had  not  been  under  the  tuition  of  Jesus  in 


114  STUDIES    IN   ACTS 

vain.  However,  there  must  be  another  revelation 
before  he  is  ready  for  his  very  largest  work;  and  still, 
in  the  face  of  that  revelation,  he  will  cry  out,  after 
his  old  style,  "Not  so,  Lord!"  throwing,  as  was  his 
wont,  his  corrections  into  the  face  of  Christ's  revela- 
tions. "Not  so,  Lord!  for  nothing  common  or  un- 
clean hath  at  any  time  entered  into  my  mouth." 
True  Jew!  True  disciple!  Denying  and  converted! 
Correcting  and  corrected !  Noble!  Abased!  Shrink- 
ing! Daring!  Impulsively  resisting,  yet  consider- 
ately following,  the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit! 
We  are  inclined  to  tears,  and  we  are  forced  to 
admiration,  while  we  rank  him  among  the  greatest 
and  truest  of  our  human  brothers  and  leaders. 

Imperatively  the  voice  from  the  vision  answered, 
**What  God  hath  cleansed,  that  call  not  thou  com- 
mon or  unclean."  The  echoes  of  this  imperative 
voice  were  still  sounding  through  his  soul,  while 
another  voice  was  calling  at  the  gate,  and  saying, 
**Is  Simon,  whose  surname  is  Peter,  lodged  here?" 
God's  plans  had  come  together  as  hand  locks  hand, 
and  on  the  morrow  Peter  went  with  them,  "doubting 
nothing." 

It  would  be  hard  to  find  a  nobler  representative 
than  Cornelius  in  the  person  of  whom  the  Gentile 
world  might  lay  claim  to  the  blessings  of  the  Father's 
new  kingdom.  He  is  a  worthy  leader  of  the  Gentile 
hosts,  who  through  faith  in  Christ  have  "subdued 
kingdoms  and  wrought  righteousness."  None  of  the 
centurions  who  are  mentioned  in  the  New  Testament 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS  115 

are  ignoble,  and  Cornelius  stands  foremost  among 
them.  His  character  is  sketched  in  four  words:  he  is 
devout,  God-fearing,  charitable,  prayerful.  But  this 
bold  outline  gains  immensely  in  vividness  when  we 
look  beyond  to  the  awful  background  on  which  it  is 
drawn.  From  the  thousands  of  gods  in  the  Roman 
Pantheon,  representatives  of  the  vanities,  lusts, 
cruelties,  and  idolatries  of  all  the  world,  this  man 
turned  to  the  worship  of  Jehovah,  gathering  as  he 
could  from  the  Jews  around  him  accurate  notions 
of  the  supreme  and  holy  Deity.  In  the  midst  of  a 
nation  thronged  with  millions  of  human  chattels  he 
made  his  servants  members  of  his  praying  household. 
Living  among  a  vindictive  and  hateful  people  his 
hand  was  open  to  them  with  alms;  and  though  he 
might  naturally  have  been  superciliously  proud  of 
his  Roman  name  and  lineage,  he  is  nevertheless  so 
humble  as  to  send  for  spiritual  guidance  to  a  Jew 
lodged  with  a  tanner. 

At  last  these  two  Spirit-led,  chosen  men,  meet. 
It  is  a  scene  for  an  artist.  The  Roman  soldier,  clad 
in  breast-plate  and  helmet,  falls  down  to  worship 
at  the  feet  of  the  fisherman  Jew.  The  Jew,  no  longer 
thinking  of  Gentile  pollution,  lifts  him  up,  saying: 
** Stand  up;  I  myself  also  am  a  man."  And  so  side 
by  side  they  walk,  entering  into  the  house,  mutually 
explaining  all  that  their  visions  had  not  explained, 
the  soldier  of  the  cross  and  the  soldier  of  the  sword, 
brothers  already  potentially,  their  hearts  swelling 
with  mutual    love   under    the    inspiration   of   hopes 


116  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

reaching  heaven-high  and  world-wide.  This  talking 
and  walking  with  the  centurion,  and  entering  into 
his  house  is  the  beginning  of  the  sublime  pageantry 
of  Christ's  international,  blood-bought.  Spirit-born, 
brotherhood. 

The  apostle  began  his  sermon  before  the  centurion 
and  his  household  by  the  frank  statement  of  the  last 
revelation  that  he  was  ever  to  receive.  His  first 
great  revelation  was  that  Jesus  was  the  Christ,  the 
t^  Son  of  the  living  God.  Of  this  he  was  finally  con- 
vinced by  the  resurrection  of  Jesus.  His  second 
great  revelation  was  the  plan  of  salvation  as  an- 
nounced to  the  inquiring  believers  on  the  day  of 
Pentecost:  "Repent  and  be  baptized,  every  one  of 
you  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  for  the  remission 
of  sins,  and  ye  shall  receive  the  gift  of  the  Holy 
Spirit."  His  third  great  revelation  he  announces 
in  these  words:  *'I  perceive  that  God  is  no  respecter 
of  persons;  but  in  every  nation  he  that  feareth  him 
and  worketh  righteousness  is  accepted  with  him." 
In  this  he  reached  the  summit  of  the  mountain  up 
which  he  had  been  traveling,  and  stumbling,  from 
the  day  that  the  Savior  called  him  to  leave  his  boats 
and  nets.  Higher  in  the  ways  of  revelation  it  is  not 
possible  to  go.  The  Apostle  Paul  knew  a  certain  one 
caught  up  into  the  third  heaven,  but  what  he  saw 
there  it  was  unlawful  to  tell  in  this  world. 

Aside  from  this  final  revelation,  standing  as  an 
introduction,  the  apostle's  sermon  is  the  same  that 
he  preached  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  modified  only 


STUDIES   IX   ACTS  117 

in  minor  details  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  occasion. 
While  he  was  declaring  the  resurrection  of  Jesus, 
and  his  reigning  and  judicial  authority,  and  the 
remission  of  sins  through  faith  in  him,  the  Holy 
Spirit  fell  upon  the  hearers  precisely  as  upon  the 
apostles  and  others  on  the  day  of  Pentecost.  This 
was  at  once  the  Savior's  sign  of  acceptance  as  re- 
garded the  Gentiles,  and  his  seal  of  approval  as  re- 
garded the  apostle's  preaching  to  them.  Immediately 
it  enabled  the  Apostle  Peter  to  challenge  the  adverse 
opinion  of  his  Jewish  brethen,  the  six  who  had  ac- 
companied him,  as  to  the  acceptance  of  the  Gentiles, 
and  afterward,  as  recorded  in  the  eleventh  chapter, 
to  offer  to  the  Jerusalem  church  such  a  defense  of 
his  course  as  could  not  be  gainsaid.  Here  is  the 
challenge:  *'Can  any  man  forbid  water,  that  these 
should  not  be  baptized,  who  have  received  the  Holy 
Spirit  as  well  as  we?"  Breaking  the  silence  that 
followed,  "he  commanded  them  to  be  baptized  in 
the  name  of  the  Lord."  Evidently  the  apostle 
places  baptism  here  as  the  culmination  of  conversion. 
It  was  the  last  step  of  the  pathway  that  Cornelius 
traveled  entering  the  church.  If  the  six  Jewish 
brethren  wished  to  challenge  the  reception  of  Cor- 
nelius into  the  church,  there  at  the  waters  of  baptism 
was  the  place  to  do  it.  There  and  then  they  should 
speak,  or  forever  hold  their  peace.  They  dared 
not  demand  circumcision,  they  dared  not  refuse 
baptism,  and  without  the  former,  and  upon  the 
basis  of  the  latter,  they   accepted   the  fellowship  of 


118  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

the  Gentiles,  "tarrying  certain  days"  with  them, 
and  **  eating  with  them."  All  this  is  indicative  of 
the  place  that  baptism  held  in  the  economy  of  the 
first  church,  and  in  the  minds  of  the  first  Christians. 

By  the  conversion  of  Cornelius  a  great  mystery 
was  made  plain.  The  Apostle  Paul  refers  to  this  as 
a  dispensation  of  the  grace  of  God,  and  as  a  revela- 
tion, "which,"  he  says,  "in  other  ages  was  not 
made  known  unto  the  sons  of  men  as  it  is  now 
revealed  unto  his  holy  apostles  and  prophets  by 
the  Spirit,  that  the  Gentiles  should  be  fellow  heirs, 
and  of  the  same  body,  and  partakers  of  his  promise 
in  Christ  by  the  Gospel"  (Eph.  iii.  5,  6).  To  the 
generous  souls  among  the  Israelites  it  must  have 
seemed  surpassingly  strange  that  God  should  cast 
off  the  myriads  of  the  nations  around  them.  Isaiah 
and  Jeremiah  could  understand  it  only  in  view  of 
an  ultimately  extended  reception  of  them.  "It  is 
a  light  thing  that  thou  shouldest  be  my  servant  to 
raise  up  the  tribes  of  Jacob,  and  to  restore  the 
preserved  of  Israel ;  I  will  also  give  thee  for  a  light 
to  the  Gentiles,  that  thou  mayest  be  my  salvation 
to  the  ends  of  the  earth"  (Isa.  xlix.6).  This  large- 
hearted  longing  of  Isaiah,  boldly  and  beautifully 
expressed,  is  representative  of  such  Old  Testament 
passages  as  seem  to  stand  in  conflict  with  the  exclu- 
siveness  shown  in  God's  choice  of  Abraham,  and  the 
permanence  pf  the  Jewish  cult  and  rites,  which  over 
and  over  again  are  enjoined  upon  the  people  for- 
ever.    There  stood  the  mystery   of   nations   rejected 


STUDIES  IN  ACTS  119 

of  God;  hated  by  all  but  all  of  the  chosen  people; 
yearned  over  by  few;  yet  with  manifold  blessings 
promised  to  them  in  the  very  covenant,  which,  by  the 
exclusiveness  of  its  carnal  ordinances,  seemed  to 
cut  them  off  forever.  To  a  people  worshiping  the 
letter  of  their  law  rather  than  its  spirit;  mistaking 
their  own  divinely-appointed  office  as  an  end  within 
itself;  supposing  that  their  ceremonial  types  and 
shadows  were  the  eternal  substance  of  spiritual 
things;  mistaking  their  promised  Messiah  for  a 
greater  Moses  to  match  and  over-match  the  Csesars ; 
failing  to  perceive  that  his  fulfillment  of  the  law 
was  the  end  of  it  rather  than  the  confirmation  of 
it;  schooled  by  generations  of  a  history  mostly  mourn- 
ful to  a  life  and  death  loyalty  to  the  customs  of 
their  fathers, — to  such  a  people  it  was  an  inscruta- 
ble mystery  that  the  cast-off  peoples  were  ever  in 
any  way  to  be  made  one  with  themselves.  The 
estrangement  between  Jews  and  Gentiles  seemed 
incurable;  their  mutual  hatred,  ineradicable;  and 
the  wall  between  them,  impregnable.  But  lo! 
Cornelius  is  converted,  and  to  those  who,  like  the 
apostles  Peter  and  Paul,  have  the  eyes  to  see  it, 
the  mystery  is  solved.  That  conversion  was  a 
revelation  and  a  revolution.  Therein  '*old  things 
passed  away;  all  things  became  new."  In  the  flesh 
of  Jesus  there  was  "abolished  the  enmity,  even  the 
law  of  commandments  contained  in  ordinances,"  and 
in  him  there  was  made  "of  twain,  one  new  man." 
We  are  to  bring  this   miracle  and  this  mystery  face 


120  STUDIES    IN   ACTS 

to  face,  and  we  are  to  gaze  upon  the  former  till  the 
latter  is  no  more.  Only  so  can  we  understand  the 
conflict  that  was  soon  to  be  waged  in  the  first  church, 
for,  mournfully  enough,  the  conversion  that  brought 
peace  to  the  noble  Roman  became  a  storm  center 
in  the  kingdom  of   his  new-found  Master. 

In  summary:  1st.  The  tenth  chapter  of  The  Acts 
presents  us  with  a  parallel  to  Pentecost.  There  is 
the  same  preacher,  the  same  supervision  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  the  same  presentation  of  Christ,  the  same 
miracle  of  conversion.  Yet  there  is  an  advance 
upon  Pentecost. 

2d.  It  presents  us  with  a  good  man,  non-Chris- 
tian, non-Jew,  made  a  Christian,  but  not  made  a 
Jew. 

3d.  It  presents  us,  therefore,  with  a  revelation 
which  was  a  revolution,  and  with  a  conversion  that 
unveiled  the  mystery  of  ages. 

4th.  It  presents  us  with  the  Apostle  Peter's  path 
of  progress  till  he  reached  perfection  in  revelation. 


VI. 

THE   FIRST   GENTILE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH 


"  By  revelation  he  made  known  unto  me  the  mystery,  which  in 
other  ages  was  not  made  known  unto  the  sons  of  men,  as  it  is  now 
revealed  unto  his  holy  apostles  and  prophets  by  the  Spirit ;  that  the 
Gentiles  should  be  fellow-heirs,  and  of  the  same  body,  and  partakers 
of  his  promise  in  Christ  by  the  Gospel."— JSp/i.  in.  3-6. 

"It  was  from  Antioch,  and  with  the  co-operation  of  its  church, 

that  Paul  undertook  his  great  missionary  tours  into  Asia  Minor 

and  Greece.  "—Sc^#. 

122 


VI. 

THE  FIRST  GENTILE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

"Now  they  that  were  scattered  abroad  upon  the  persecution  that 
arose  about  Stephen  traveled  as  far  as  Phenice,  and  Cyprus,  and 
Antioch,  preaching  the  word  to  none  but  unto  Jews  only.  And 
some  of  them  were  men  of  Cyprus,  and  Cyrene,  which,  when  they 
were  come  to  Antioch,  spake  unto  the  Greeks  (Revised  Version), 
preaching  the  Lord  Jesus.  And  the  hand  of  the  Lord  was  with 
them,  and  a  great  number  turned  unto  the  Lord." — Acts  xi.  19-22. 

Antioch  whs  the  third  city  in  the  Koman  empire, 
Kome  being  first,  and  Alexandria  second.  Eastward 
it  commanded  the  region  lying  toward  the  fertile  val- 
leys of  the  Tigris  and  the  Euphrates;  northward, 
Asia  Minor  and  the  highways  leading  thence  to 
Rome;  westward,  by  way  of  the  Orontes,  the  shores 
of  the  Mediterranean.  As  an  evangelistic  center, 
Antioch  had  points  of  advantage  over  any  of  her 
sister  cities.  Babylon  was  too  far  to  the  east  to 
influence  the  growing  western  world.  Alexandria 
had  Egypt  for  her  background,  but  the  world's 
progress  did  not  lie  in  that  direction;  and,  be- 
sides, that  city  was  so  speculative  as  to  spoil 
Christianity  almost  as  soon  as  she  had  received  it. 
Jerusalem  was  doomed  to  destruction  by  reason  of 
its  exclusiveness.  Antioch  was  cosmopolitan.  All 
things  considered,  it  was  a  strategic  point  to  be 
gained  and  held  by  the  Christian  faith,  and  from 
which  to  propagate  that  faith. 

123 


124  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

Nature  had  adorned  Antioch  with  the  splendor  of 
rivers  and  the  majesty  of  mountains;  commerce  had 
poured  her  wealth  into  it,  and  the  Seleucid  princes 
had  spared  no  pains  to  enrich  it  with  the  works  of 
human  grandeur  and  art.  Renan,  as  quoted  by  Prof. 
B.  A.  Hinsdale,  in  his  *' Jewish  Christian  Church,'' 
has  given  the  following  description  of  its  popula- 
tion : 

"It  was  an  inconceivable  medley  of  merry- 
andrews,  quacks,  buffoons,  magicians,  miracle-mon- 
gers, sorcerers,  priests,  impostors;  a  city  of  races, 
games,  dances,  processions,  fetes,  debauches,  of  un- 
bridled luxury,  of  all  the  follies  of  the  East,  of  the 
most  unhealthy  superstitions,  and  of  the  fanaticisms 
of  the  orgy.  The  great  corso  which  traversed  the 
city  was  like  a  theater,  where  rolled,  day  after  day, 
the  waves  of  a  trifling,  light-headed,  changeable, 
insurrection-loving  populace — a  populace  sometimes 
spirituel,  occupied  with  romps,  parodies,  squibs,  im- 
pertinences of  all  sorts." 

But  there  were  solider  elements  in  its  make-up  as 
indicated  by  the  presence  of  its  Roman  soldiers,  and 
a  colony  of  Jews,  of  whom  Nicolas,  the  proselyte, 
was  a  representative.  Cicero  speaks  of  the  city  as 
''distinguished  by  men  of  learning  and  the  cultiva- 
tion of  the  arts."  Certainly  the  dark  and  trifling 
side  of  the  picture  of  its  people  is  relieved  by  the 
readiness  with  which  they  received  Christianity,  and 
the  energy  with  which  they  propagated  it.  In  the 
time  of  Chrysostom,  the  population  was  estimated  at 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS  125 

200,000,  more  than  half  of  whom  were  Christians. 

The  persecution  that  followed  the  death  of 
Stephen  had  its  beneficent  side.  As  the  eagle  stirs 
up  her  young,  and  tosses  them  from  the  nest,  com- 
pelling them  to  fly,  so  by  the  hand  of  persecution  the 
children  of  the  "  Mother  Church  "  became  missiona- 
ries, and  Phenice  received  the  Gospel,  and  Cyprus, 
and  Antioch,  and  doubtless  many  intervening  cities. 
This  missionary  work  was  at  the  first  confined  to  the 
Jews  only.  But  the  men  of  Cyprus  and  Cyrene, 
**when  they  were  come  to  Antioch,  spake  unto  the 
Greeks,  preaching  the  Lord  Jesus."  Upon  the  more 
liberal-minded  Jews,  who  had  been  brought  up  in 
lands  foreign  to  Judaea,  the  leaven  of  the  Gospel  was 
having  its  legitimate  effect.  Love  was  allying  itself 
with  the  fundamental  sense  of  humanity  in  passing 
beyond  the  arbitrary  lines  of  clannishness  and  nation- 
alism. So  when  they  came  to  this  great  city  and 
saw  its  needs,  they  no  longer  refrained,  but  boldly 
preached  to  the  Greeks  as  well  as  to  the  Jews. 
These  missionaries  seem  to  have  reached  by  a  more 
natural  course  the  conclusion  which,  in  the  case  of 
the  Apostle  Peter,  came  by  the  way  of  miracle.  Had 
they  themselves  entertained  any  doubt  as  to  the 
correctness  of  their  course,  the  Lord  stood  ready  to 
remove  it,  for  *'his  hand  was  with  them,"  and  a 
great  number  turned  to  him.  "By  their  fruits  ye 
shall  know  them."  When  the  preaching  of  the 
Word  brings  forth  beneficent  results  in  lives  re- 
newed, it  is  not  becoming  to  censure  seeming  irreg- 


126  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

ularities  in  its  presentation.  As  the  Lord  himself 
came  to  the  defense  of  his  faithful  and  aggressive 
missionaries  in  Antioch,  so  he  has  risen  up  in  de- 
fense to-day  of  his  missionaries  in  India,  and  China, 
and  Japan,  and  Africa,  and  in  hundreds  of  the 
islands  of  the  sea.  From  the  standpoints  merely  of 
the  humanity  and  the  ethics  involved  in  missionary 
enterprises,  and  the  evident  transformations  of  pagan 
peoples  in  personal  conduct  and  social  customs,  the 
mouths  of  the  cynics  should  forever  be  stopped. 
And  when  we  add  to  this  those  spiritual  and  eternal 
considerations  upon  which  our  Savior  placed  so 
much  of  the  emphasis  of  his  life  and  teachings,  it 
becomes  a  matter  simply  of  ignorant  and  heartless 
impertinence  to  seek  to  throw  so  much  as  a  straw  in 
the  way  of  missionary  progress.  Let  the  adverse 
critics  of  missions  do  three  things :  let  them  in  the 
first  place  remember  the  ancient  missions  from  which 
have  resulted,  by  the  lapse  of  centuries,  the  present 
conditions  of  civilization  in  Europe  and  America, — 
missions  which  began  precisely  here  in  Antioch,  were 
carried  forward  by  the  immortal  labors  of  the  Apos- 
tle Paul  into  Asia  Minor  and  Europe,  and  thence  still 
further  extended  among  the  Goths  and  Saxons  a^id 
Angles,  by  such  as  Ulfilas  and  Augustine  and  Columba 
and  Boniface;  in  the  second  place,  let  them  ponder 
the  statistical  tables  of  modern  missions  standing 
boldly  out  from  an  awful  background  of  heathen 
and  idolatrous  conditions,  where  hatred  and  lust 
and    superstition    rankle    within,    and    lechery    and 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS  127 

lies  and  clannishness  and  infanticide  and  widow-burn' 
ing  and  priestcraft  and  tribal  wars  and  cannibalism 
rage  without; — let  them  note  the  transformations 
that  have  passed  over  such  greater  islands  as  Mada- 
gascar and  Borneo  and  Sumatra  and  Celebes  and 
New  Zealand,  and  at  least  three  hundred  of  the 
lesser  islands  of  the  Pacific  Ocean;  and  the  revolu- 
tion in  tJapan,  the  result  of  Christian  influences;  and 
the  missionary  explorations  of  Africa,  together  with 
the  conversion  of  whole  tribes;  and  the  encouraging 
advances  that  have  been  made  in  China,  where  the 
50,000  native  Christians  are  but  an  earnest  of  the 
millions  confidently  expected  by  the  most  experi- 
enced missionaries ;  and  the  still  greater  advances  in 
India,  where,  at  the  present  rate  of  increase,  another 
century  will  see  100,000,000  of  native  Christians;  in 
short,  let  them  consider  the  great  and  beneficent 
work  that  has  already  been  accomplished,  remember- 
ing, meanwhile,  that  the  majestic  enterprise  of 
world-wide  evangelization  has  but  just  begun ;  and  in 
the  third  place,  let  them  pray,  really,  devoutly  pray, 
*'Thy  kingdom  come;" — then  there  will  be  an  end 
of  unfriendly  criticism. 

These  unnamed  and  unknown  men  of  Cyprus  and 
Cyrene,  who,  when  they  had  got  as  far  as  Antioch, 
dared  to  break  away  from  traditionalism  and  do  an 
irregular  thing,  preaching  to  the  **  Greeks,"  are  not 
only  the  worthy  heralds  of  the  Savior,  who  in  the 
glory  of  his  resurrection  state  stood  up  in  a  more 
than  manlike  boldness  of  originality  and  sublimity  of 


128  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

conception,  commanding  them  to  do  this  very  thing; 
but  they  are  also  the  worthy  forerunners  of  Paul 
and  Barnabas  and  Ulfilas  and  Augustine  and  Carey 
and  Morrison  and  Moffat  and  Martyn  and  Living- 
stone and  Zinzendorf,  and  a  great  host  which  no 
man  can  number,  as  nameless  here  as  these  men  of 
Cyprus  and  Cyrene  themselves,  but  not  nameless,  we 
know,  where  the  inerrant  record  of  prophets  and 
apostles  and  heroes  and  martyrs  is  kept. 

At  last  the  news  of  this  irregularity  in  Antioch 
reaches  the  church  in  Jerusalem,  and  again  the 
Lord's  plans  are  seen  to  meet  as  hand  locks  hand. 
By  the  conversion  of  Cornelius,  and  the  Apostle 
Peter's  explanation  and  defense  of  his  conduct  in 
admitting  this  Gentile  to  full  fellowship,  the  Jerusa- 
lem church  was  made  ready  for  the  news  from  Anti- 
och. When  the  Apostle  Peter  completed  his  de- 
fense, saying,  *'What  was  I  that  I  could  withstand 
God?"  they  held  their  peace,  and  glorified  God,  say- 
ing, *'Then  hath  God  also  to  the  Gentiles  granted 
repentance  unto  life."  It  is  wonderful  how  these 
Jewish  Christians  were  overcoming  their  abhorrence 
of  the  Gentiles.  Properly  weighed,  it  would  be  hard 
to  find  a  more  fraternal  and  progressive  sentiment 
than  this.  Here  is  the  expression  of  a  breadth  of 
brotherhood  that  could  have  sprung  only  from  the 
life  and  teachings  of  Christ,  and  that  could  have  been 
nurtured  into  ripeness  only  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  By 
the  side  of  it  that  high-sounding  Americanism,  *'Life, 
liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,"  pales  into  a 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS  129 

mere  political  shibboleth,  for  we  do  not  live  it  as  we 
ought;  and  the  turbulent  Frenchmen  of  the  days 
of  the  reign  of  terror,  shouting,  ''Liberty,  fraternit}^ 
and  equality!"  while  they  were  cutting  off  one 
another's  heads,  have  given  us,  by  way  of  contrast 
with  the  action  of  the  Jerusalem  church,  the  most 
fearful  exhibition  of  the  sentiments  of  liberty  and 
equality,  shorn  of  the  love  of  Jesus  and  the  potency 
of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

Instead,  therefore,  of  condemning  the  progressive 
and  even  revolutionary  work  of  the  Antioch  mission- 
aries, the  Jerusalem  church  found  it  in  full  keeping 
with  the  work  done  at  Caesarea,  for  which  they  had 
already  glorified  God.  Instead  of  coming  upon  them 
as  a  shock,  and  creating  a  revulsion  against  the 
Gentiles,  the  report  came  rather  as  "  good  news 
from  a  far  country,  and  as  cold  water  to  a  thirsty 
soul."  And  surely  it  is  competent  to  suppose  that 
once  more  they  glorified  God,  and  again  joined  in 
the  wondrous  acclaim,  "Then  hath  God  also  to  the 
Gentiles  granted  repentance  unto  salvation." 

As  to  their  action,  we  are  not  left  to  speculation; 
they  did  a  beautiful  thing.  "  They  sent  forth  Barna- 
bas that  he  should  go  as  far  as  Antioch."  Why 
Barnabas?  Why  not  James  the  legalist,  the  rigid 
and  ascetic  Jew?  Why  not  the  Apostle  Peter  him- 
self? No,  they  send  the  "Son  of  Consolation,"  the 
large-hearted,  liberal-handed  exhorter  of  the  church. 
He  is  the  man  who  sold  his  land  and  gave  the  price 
of  it  to  the  church;  he  is  the  man  who  introduced 


130  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

Paul  to  the  church,  and  vouched  for  the  genuineness 
of  his  conversion,  and  stood  by  him  in  his  disputes 
with  the  Grecians.  Why  should  they  send  this  '*  Son 
of  Consolation?"  Had  the  Jerusalem  church  no 
professional  theologian,  with  a  hard  and  fast  system 
of  dogmatics,  that  she  could  send?  Had  she  no  pro- 
fessional watch-dogs  of  the  faith,  no  heresy-sniffers, 
no  arch-inquisitors  that  she  could  send  to  Antioch 
to  spy  out  their  irregularities?  Where  was  her  Tor- 
quemada?  Where  at  the  very  least  was  her  "Angel- 
ical Doctor,"  with  his  "Method  of  Aristotle,"  and 
his  twenty-three  folio  volumes  of  speculative  theol- 
ogy? Why  not  send  him  to  show  the  young  converts 
of  Antioch  whether  realism  or  nominalism  was  the 
true  philosophy,  or  to  show  them  the  difference  be- 
tween the  satisfaction  to  justice  that  Jesus  wrought 
in  his  sufferings  and  the  merit  of  his  obedience  to 
the  law,  "by  virtue  of  which  the  redeemed  are  enti- 
tled to  the  rewards  of  eternity?  "  O  surely  they  will 
send  some  one  who  can  logic-chop  the  scaffolding  of 
the  new  temple  they  are  building  in  Antioch,  and  see 
that  it  is  all  done  the  way  the  grandfathers  did  it, 
and  "fashion  it  according  to  the  pattern  shown  in 
the  Mount!"  Surely  the  Mother  Church  will  see 
that  the  Antioch  Church  is  made  from  her  own  stere- 
otype plates,  and  she  will  demand  that  there  be  no 
innovations,  no  progress,  no  liberty,  and  if  things  do 
not  go  along  the  chalk-line  of  legalism  she  will  issue 
high-sounding  documents  with  damnatory  clauses, 
and  grow  furious  with  the  thunders  of  her  excommu- 


STUDIES    IN   ACTS  131 

nications!  Where  were  the  Pecksniffs  of  the  Jeru- 
salera  church,  the  non-progressives,  always  suffering 
from  an  attack  of  conscience,  the  anti-brethren,  who 
would  make  a  test  of  fellowship  of  circumcision,  or 
of  a  music  box,  or  of  a  syllogism,  or  of  their  own 
deified  dogmatism?  O  thanks  to  the  Mother  Church! 
She  had  such  characters,  as  we  shall  find,  but  she 
kept  them  as  long  as  she  could  in  the  dark,  where  they 
belong.  She  refused  to  appoint  them  to  disturb  the 
peace  of  the  young  Gentile  church.  If  they  will  go 
on  such  a  mission  of  infernalism  they  must  go  self- 
appointed,  as  such  characters  for  the  most  part  do. 

It  is  a  mission  of  fellowship,  not  of  censorship;  a 
mission  of  love,  and  not  of  law,  that  the  Mother 
Church  has  to  perform.  And  out  of  her  love,  not 
her  legalism,  she  sends  her  "  Son  of  Consolation," 
his  credentials  being  that  he  was  a  son  of  co^isolation^ 
a  good  man,  full  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  of  faith.  In 
addition  to  the  Apostle  Paul's  panegyric  in  the  thir- 
teenth chapter  of  I.  Corinthians  it  may  be  added, 
Christian  love  is  not  blind;  she  sees;  she  has  com- 
mon sense;  she  does  not  send  out  a  misfit  of  bigotry 
upon  her  fraternal  ministries,  but  she  chooses  with 
clearest  insight  the  precisely  fitted  minister  for  such 
offices.  When  this  good  man  came  to  Antioch 
and  saw  the  grace  of  God,  he  was  glad,  and,  true  to 
his  character  and  his  mission,  he  exhorted  them  (he 
was  only  an  exhorter)  that  with  purpose  of  heart 
they  should  cleave  unto  the  Lord. 

In   this  exhortation  Barnabas  justifies  his  mission. 


132  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

Whatever  other  religions  may  demand,  the  one  essen- 
tial of  Christianity  is  this  cleaving  to  the  Lord 
Christ.  Personal  loyalty  to  his  personal  Lordship  is 
the  sum  total  of  his  demands  upon  us,  and  it  is  also 
his  graciously  extended  privilege  to  us.  To  cleave  to 
Christ  is  to  cleave  to  all  that  is  Christly,  and  that  is 
atonement.  The  form  of  our  confession,  the  sub- 
stance of  our  creed,  and  the  rule  of  our  lives  as 
Christians  is  practically  this:  *'  O  Christ,  where  thou 
goest  I  will  go ;  where  thou  lodgest  I  will  lodge ;  thy 
people  shall  be  my  people,  and  thy  God,  my  God." 
Or  this,  **  I  am  persuaded  that  neither  life,  nor  death, 
nor  angels,  nor  principalities,  nor  powers,  nor  things 
present,  nor  things  to  come,  nor  height,  nor  depth, 
nor  any  other  creature  shall  be  able  to  separate  us 
from  the  love  of  God  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our 
Lord."     Or  this, 

"Alone,  O  Love  ineffable! 
Thy  saving  name  is  given; 
To  turn  aside  from  thee  is  hell, 
To  walk  with  thee  is  heaven. 

"Apart  from  thee  all  gain  is  loss, 
All  labor  vainly  done ; 
The  solemn  shadow  of  thy  cross 
Is  better  than  the  sun. 

"Not  thine  the  bigot's  partial  plea, 
Nor  thine  the  zealot's  ban; 
Thou  well  canst  spare  a  love  to  thee 
Which  ends  in  hate  of  man. 

"O  Lord  and  Master  of  us  alll 
Whate'er  our  name  or  sign, 
We  own  thy  sway,  we  hear  thy  call. 
We  test  our  lives  by  thine." 


STUDIES    IN   ACTS  133 

Under  the  leadership  of  this  good  man  the  church 
grew:  "Much  people  was  added  unto  the  Lord." 
Enlargement  in  one  direction  called  for  enlargement 
in  another.  This  church  must  have  an  assistant  pas- 
tor, or,  more  properly,  above  all  other  pastors  it 
must  have  one  fit  to  be  their  leader.  '*  Then  de- 
parted Barnabas  to  Tarsus  to  seek  for  Saul;  and 
when  he  had  found  him  he  brought  him  to  Antioch. 
And  it  came  to  pass,  that  a  whole  j^ear  they  assem- 
bled themselves  with  the  church  and  taught  much 
people."  Barnabas  knew  Paul  by  companionship 
with  him  better  than  we  know  him  by  his  epistles, 
and  he  chose  him  for  that  place  as  inerrantly  as  a 
great  general  chooses  his  captains  for  strategic 
encounters.  As  he  had  introduced  Saul  to  the 
church  in  Jerusalem,  so  now  he  introduces  him  to 
the  Antioch  church,  and  here  among  Gentiles,  among 
Christians  mostly  Gentile,  the  young  Jewish  zealot 
and  rabbi,  the  Pharisee  of  Pharisees,  the  student  of 
Gamaliel,  finds  the  basis  of  his  life  work.  So  sur- 
prising are  the  destinies  marked  out  by  God  for  his 
chosen  workmen!  If  the  church  could  always  have 
some  good  Barnabas  for  its  adviser!  If  Barnabas 
could  always  find  the  Paul  suitable  for  the  place !  If 
Paul  and  Barnabas  could  always  content  themselves 
to  be  teaching  much  people,  and  not  seek  to  be 
"lording  it  over  God's  heritage!  "  If  the  church 
were  always  willing  to  be  thus  taught  and  shep- 
herded !  —  how  much  foolish  and  unlearned  talk 
might  be   spared   about  "the  eldership,"  and  "the 


134  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

ruling  elders,"  and  '*the  deacons,"  and  **the  bish- 
ops," and  **the  presbyters,"  and  their  respective 
functions  and  official  dignities !  Up  to  this  point  we 
have  heard  nothing  about  the  bishops  and  deacons  of 
the  church  in  Antioch.  Possibly  they  were  there, 
possibly  not.  Of  one  thing,  however,  we  may  be 
sure:  where  Paul  and  Barnabas  were,  and  such 
"prophets  and  teachers"  as  were  associated  with 
them  (xiii.  1),  the  teaching  function  eclipsed  all 
else.  Always  in  the  church  the  maximum  of  intelli- 
gence means  the  minimum  of  surveillance;  the 
maximum  of  love,  the  minimum  of  law;  and  the 
maximum  of  fraternity,  the  minimum  of  machinery. 
"And  it  came  to  pass  .  .  .  that  the  disciples 
were  called  Christians  first  in  Antioch."  At  last  it 
began  to  dawn  upon  the  world  that  here  was  a  dis- 
tinct people,  neither  Jews  nor  Gentiles.  In  Jeru- 
salem they  seemed  to  be  merely  a  sect  of  the  Jews ; 
here  in  Antioch  they  attained  to  distinctiveness,  and 
a  name  for  them  was  inevitable.  The  world  names 
its  genera  and  species  as  naturally  and  necessarily  as 
Adam  named  the  beasts  of  Eden.  The  naming  of 
the  disciples,  therefore,  indicates  progress;  it  marks 
the  appearance  of  a  new  species;  it  is  one  of  the 
milestones  of  the  earliest  church  history.  Is  there 
nothing  in  names?  There  is  a  distinctive  move- 
ment back  of  every  distinctive  name.  History  makes 
no  mistake  in  this  matter.  Let  the  man  who  loves 
the  union  of  Christ's  people  and  yet  pleads  that  his 
denominational    name    means    nothing,   ask   history 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  135 

if,   like    an    insane   mother,  she   has    given    a   name 
where  no  really  distinct  child  existed. 

With  reference  to  one  another,  Christ's  followers 
were  called  brethren;  with  reference  to  God,  chil- 
dren ;  with  reference  to  their  character,  saints ;  with 
reference  to  their  Master,  disciples;  with  reference 
to  the  Savior,  believers;  as  distinguished  from  the 
world  by  the  sum  total  of  their  relations  to  Christ, 
Christians.  None  of  these  names  are  used  in  the 
New  Testament  as  the  names  of  the  church,  or  of 
any  of  its  congregations.  There  is  no  *' Brethren 
Church,"  or  "Children's  Church,"  or  "Saints' 
Church,"  or  "Disciples'  Church,"  or  "Christian 
Church."  Taken  together,  the  Christians  in  the 
world  were  designated  by  pleonasm  "  the  Church  of 
God,"  or  "the  Church  of  Christ,"  but  most  simply 
and  most  frequently  as  "  the  church,"  there  being  of 
course  but  one;  the  congregations  of  Christians  were 
designated  always  by  location,  never,  never,  never  by 
denomination.  There  were  no  denominations,  and 
our  whole  system  of  isms  and  their  denominational 
namings  is  abnormal.  There  were  the  churches  at 
Antioch,  and  Corinth,  and  Ephesus,  and  Smyrna, 
and  Laodicea,  and  Thyatira,  but  in  every  case  it  was 
simply  and  sublimely  and  unmistakably  "  the  church" 
there.  It  is  our  denominational  environment  that  is 
crowding  us  into  such  expediencies  as  "Disciple" 
with  a  big  D  to  it,  and  "  The  Christian  Church  "  with 
a  big  THE  before  it.  At  normal,  if  Christians  ever 
get  back  to  that  condition,  they  will  simply  say  "  the 


136  STUDIES    IN    ACTS 

church/'  and  then  proceed  to  give  its  place  name 
rather  than  its  x>arty  name.  There  must  be  denomin- 
ationalism  in  denominational  names;  there  may  be  in 
the  names  "Brethren,"  "Saints,"  "Disciples,"  and 
even  "Christian."  Sectarianism  is  first  in  the  spirit 
and  then  in  the  name,  and  it  may  be  in  the  spirit  in 
spite  of  the  name,  for  the  very  sink  of  sectarian 
blasphemy  consists  in  wearing  exclusively  the  name 
of  Christ  for  the  purpose  of  browbeating  all  the  rest 
of  the  world.  It  is  axiomatic  that  all  Christians  can 
unite  in  Christ,  and  in  the  name  of  Christ,  and  it  is  a 
corollary  that  there  is  no  other  basis  of  union. 
Their  creed  must  be  the  creed  of  Christ;  their  name 
the  name  of  Christ;  their  spirit  the  spirit  of  Christ. 
No  doubt  sacrifices  must  be  made  of  many  a  dogma, 
and  pet  polity,  and  cherished  name,  and  denomin- 
ational whim,  and  the  haughty  looks  of  lineage.  But 
then  God  is  able  of  tlie  stones  to  raise  up  seed  unto 
Luther,  and  Calvin  was  not  crucified  for  us,  nor  were 
we  baptized  in  the  name  of  supralapsarianisra.  And 
beyond  all  else,  when  we  see  others  casting  out  devils 
in  Christ's  name  we  must  have  charity  enough  not  to 
anathematize  them  because  they  follow  not  with  us. 
In  a  double  direction  "sweet  charity"  was  bridg- 
ing the  chasm  between  Jew  and  Gentile.  Out  of 
love  the  church  in  Jerusalem  gave  Barnabas  to 
Antioch.  But  there  came  forewarnings  of  a  famine, 
and  Judea  seems  to  have  been  especially  afilicted. 
Out  of  love  the  Antioch  church,  "every  man 
according  to   his   ability,  determined  to  send   relief 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS  137 

unto  the  brethren  who  dwelt  in  Judaea.  Which 
also  they  did,  and  sent  it  to  the  elders  by  the  hands 
of  Barnabas  and  Saul."  Christianity  is  full  of  sur- 
prises, and  this  is  one  of  them,  that  there  should 
have  been  in  such  an  age,  between  peoples  so  sun- 
dered by  birth  and  environment,  and  by  every 
antipathy  that  can  spring  from  such  breeding 
grounds  of  hatred  as  the  politics  and  religions  of 
that  day  were,  such  a  reciprocity  of  love.  Above 
there  is  given  Kenan's  description  of  the  population 
of  Antioch,  an  unlikely  conglomerate  of  human 
creatures  surely  from  which  to  expect  a  show  of 
substantial  charity  toward  foreigners.  But  place 
beside  it  this  paragraph  from  Mr.  Charles  Loring 
Brace's  "History  of  Humane  Progress:"  "Under 
the  old  Greek  and  Roman  habits  of  mind,  the 
stranger  was  mainly  looked  upon  as  a  barbarian  and 
enemy.  Something  of  the  same  savagery,  which 
in  Stanley's  travels  through  Africa  made  almost 
every  new  tribe  he  met  with  at  once  attack  him 
like  a  dangerous  wild  beast,  animated  the  ancient 
races,  both  barbarous  and  civilized,  in  their  rela- 
tions to  foreigners.  Stoicism  indeed  cultivated 
a  more  humane  feeling  toward  the  learned  and  re- 
fined; but  the  masses  of  the  people  in  the  ancient 
world  were  full  of  prejudices  and  hostility  against 
those  not  of  their  own  race  or  country.  It  is  true 
that  the  Roman  Empire,  with  its  imperial  unity, 
tended  to  melt  different  peoples  together  under  one 
rule,  and   strangers   and   enemies   gradually   became 


138  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

only  those  outside  the  limits  of  this  grand  domain. 
Toward  those,  however,  the  old  barbaric  feeling 
and  custom  were  strong  as  ever.  That  expression 
in  Plautus,  *A  man  is  a  wolf  to  the  man  he  does 
not  know,'  is  probably  an  echo  of  an  old  Roman 
proverb,  and  utters  a  common  sentiment  of  the 
Italian  peoples." 

Add  this  further  paragraph  from  the  same  writer: 
*'The  world  never  needed  charity  and  compassion 
as  it  did  in  the  centuries  just  following  Christ. 
The  irresjDonsible  and  despotic  authority  of  Rome 
had  stripped  some  of  the  richest  provinces  of  the 
ancient  world  of  every  vestige  of  wealth  for  the 
sake  of  adding  to  the  incredible  extravagance  and 
display  of  the  imperial  court  and  city.  The  system 
of  taxation  in  distant  communities  was  like  that 
in  the  states  of  European  Turkey  in  this  century. 
It  soon  left  nothing  to  the  unfortunate  peasants, 
and  mortgaged  their  harvests  years  before.  Nor 
did  the  taxes  always  reach  the  imperial  exactor. 
Knavish  tax-gatherers,  peculating  officials,  and  local 
rings,  plundered  the  money  which  was  rung  from 
half-starved  farmers.  Incessant  wars  and  conquests 
added  to  the  misery  of  the  laboring  classes;  and 
slavery,  as  we  have  shown,  depressed  the  industry 
and  wasted  the  means  of  the  whole  empire.  Vast 
masses  of  proletaires  were  gathered  in  the  cities, 
especially  in  the  imperial  capital;  and  poverty, 
orphanage,    abandonment    of    children,    with    wide- 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  139 

Spread   pauperism   prevailed,  as   they   have   scarcely 
ever  been  known  in  the  history  of  the  world." 

Among  the  systems  of  philosophy  of  those  times 
Stoicism  is  reckoned  as  the  loftiest  and  most 
humane;  with  many  it  passed  for  religion  as  well; 
but  it  left  its  disciples  saying  actually:  *' Trouble 
not  thyself;  thy  neighbor  sins,  but  he  sins  for 
himself;  "  and  practically  also,  trouble  not  thyself; 
thy  neighbor  suffers,  but  he  suffers  for  himself. 
Into  this  world  of  tribal  pride  and  corresponding 
scorn;  of  wars  and  conquests  and  slavery  and 
rapacious  taxation;  of  the  indifference  of  the  Stoic 
and  the  wantonness  of  the  Epicure;  into  this  wolf- 
like world,  three  hundred  years  before  it  could 
claim  a  hospital  for  the  sick  or  an  asylum  for  the 
deficient,  came  the  spirit  of  Jesus,  breathing  peace 
and  helpfulness.  The  Greeks  had  their  fabled  god- 
dess of  Fortune,  bearing  high  her  cornu-copia,  but 
Christianity  is  that  goddess  in  reality.  Fortune 
and  plenty  spring  from  love.  Regardless  of  lati- 
tude and  longitude  Christian  love  pours  out  her 
plenty  with  actual  human  hands  on  famine-smitten, 
and  fever-smitten,  and  plague,  war,  flood,  and 
storm-smitten  spots  of  earth.  And  vv^hat  is  more 
wonderful,  over  all  but  infinite  desert  distances 
of  human  alienation  she  throws  her  spell  of  peace 
and  brotherhood.  Agabus,  the  brother  prophet, 
foretold  the  sufferings  of  Christian  Jews;  Christian 
Greeks  immediately  responded,  sending  relief, 
"every  man  according  to  his  ability." 


140  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

The  Jerusalem  church  began  with  a  community 
of  goods;  it  was  her  form  of  sisterly  love.  The 
Antioch  church  began  with  a  collection  for  for- 
eign sufferers;  and  that  was  her  form  of  sisterly 
love.  **Thou,"  cries  St.  Augustine,  apostrophizing 
the  church,  "thou  bringest  within  the  bond  of 
mutual  love  every  relationship  of  kindred,  every 
alliance  of  affinity;  thou  unitest  citizen  to  citizen, 
nation  to  nation,  man  to  man,  not  only  in  society, 
but  in  fraternity.  Thou  teachest  kings  to  seek 
the  welfare  of  their  peoples,  and  peoples  to  be 
subject  to  kings.  .  .  .  Thou  showest  how  to  all 
love    is  due,   and    injury  to   none."* 

Sixteen  years  later  the  Apostle  Paul,  meditating 
upon  a  similar  exhibition  of  charity  by  the  Gentile 
churches  of  Macedonia  and  Achaia  toward  **the 
poor  saints  that  were  at  Jerusalem,"  exclaims: 
*' Thanks  be  unto  God   for  his  unspeakable  gift." 

*  Lux  Mundi,  page  420. 


vn. 

THE  FIRST   MARTYR  APOSTLE 


"Then  came  to  him  the  mother  of  the  sons  of  Zebedee  with  her 
sons,  worshiping  him,  and  ^asking  a  certain  thing  of  him.  And  he 
said  unto  her.  What  wouldest  thou?  And  she  said  unto  him.  Com- 
mand that  these  my  two  sons  may  sit,  one  on  thy  right  hand,  and 
one  on  thy  left  hand  in  thy  kingdom.  But  Jesus  answered  and  said. 
Ye  know  not  what  ye  ask.  Are  ye  able  to  drink  the  cup  that  I  am 
about  to  drink?  They  say  unto  him,  We  are  able.  He  saith  unto 
them.  My  cup  indeed  ye  shall  drink;  but  to  sit  on  my  right  hand 
and  on  my  left  is  not  mine  to  give,  but  it  is  for  them  for  whom  it 

hath  been  prepared  of  my  Father.  "—Matt.  xx.  20-23 

142 


VII. 

THE  FIRST  MARTYR  APOSTLE. 

"Now  about  that  time  Herod  the  king-  stretched  forth  his  hands  to 
vex  certain  of  the  church.  And  he  killed  James  the  brother  of  John 
with  the  sword." — Acts  xii.  1,  2. 

James  was  the  first  of  the  apostles  to  seal  his  tes- 
timony with  his  life.  Perhaps  he  was  prominent  in 
some  of  the  more  public  functions  of  the  church, 
sitting  thus  by  the  side  of  Christ,  and  therefore 
smitten.  Perhaps,  being  a  "Boanerges,"  he  was  ter- 
ribly pronounced  in  his  profession.  Perhaps,  having 
been  one  of  the  Savior's  inner  circle  of  three,  he  was 
for  that  reason  more  a  mark  for  the  enemies  of 
Christ,  the  greater  love  entailing  the  greater  danger. 
But  conjectures  apart,  the  fact  is  he  was  first,  and 
his  death  "pleased  the  Jews." 

The  death  of  James  is  a  tragedy  responding  to  a 
prophecy.  The  mother  of  James  and  John,  vanity 
led,  and  leading  her  sons,  asked  that  they  might  sit, 
the  one  on  the  right  hand,  and  the  other  on  the  left, 
of  the  Lord  in  his  glory.  "Can  you  drink  the  cup 
that  I  shall  drink?"  "We  can."  "You  shall  in- 
deed." .  .  .  "And  he  killed  James  the  brother 
of  John  with  the  sword."  Thus  the  Savior's  proph- 
ecy passes  into  somber  history,  and  the  young  man's 
vanity  is  forever  forgotten  in  the  true  man's  baptism 

143 


144  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

of  blood.  It  is  ever  thus  that  the  Savior,  rebuking 
our  magisterial  vanities,  appoints  us  to  ministerial 
functions,  demanding  that  we  shall  come  with  our 
lives  in  our  hands,  if  we  would  be  worthy  of  places 
on  his  right  and  on  his  left.  There  were  immensi- 
ties of  differences  between  the  Son  of  God  and  these 
**  earthly  vessels,"  yet  in  the  day  of  trial  they  proved 
themselves  the  worthy  repositories  of  his  heavenly 
treasure.  They  hazarded  their  lives,  they  resisted 
unto  blood,  they  drank  the  cup,  they  have  their 
places  at  his  side. 

James  is  a  representative  of  all  the  apostles.  Not 
one  of  them  denied  Jesus  after  his  resurrection,  and 
to  most  of  them  sooner  or  later  Christ's  cup  of  death 
was  presented,  and  they  partook  of  it  '*in  remem- 
brance of  him,"  a  holy  eucharist  of  evidence  and  love, 
sealed  by  blood. 

John,  own  brother  to  James,  lived  to  a  great  old 
age,  and  though  his  was  not  a  martyr's  death,  yet  in 
his  tarrying  he  tasted  of  deeper  bitterness  in  the 
persecutions  that  assailed  the  church,  and  the  names 
of  Nero  and  Domitian  are  sufficient  to  recall  the 
crowd  of  mournful  metaphors  he  has  left  us  of  the 
terrible  times  in  which  he  saw  his  "little  children" 
perishing  under  fearful  tribulations. 

Herod  Agrippa  I.  was  the  son  of  Aristobulus,  and 
grandson  of  Herod  the  Great.  The  emperors  Cali- 
gula and  Claudius  had  restored  to  him  the  kingdom 
of  his  grandfather,  consisting  of  the  tetrarchies  of 
Herod  Philip,  and  Herod  Antipas,  and  Lysanias,  and 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  145 

the  provinces  of  Judaea  and  Samaria.  We  may  asso- 
ciate and  execrate  the  remembrance  of  the  three 
Herods  as  follows:  Herod  the  Great,  murderer  of 
babes;  Herod  Antipas,  murderer  of  the  Baptist; 
Herod  Agrippa,  murderer  of  James.  Renan  calls 
Agrippa  a  vile  Oriental,  and  says  that,  "In  return 
for  the  lessons  of  baseness  and  perfidy  he  had  given 
at  Rome,  he  obtained  for  himself  Samaria  and 
Judaea,  and  for  his  brother  Herod  the  kingdom  of 
Chalcis.  He  left  at  Rome  the  worst  memories,  and 
the  cruelties  of  Caligula  were  attributed  in  part  to 
his  counsels."  "The  orthodox  (Jews)  had  in  him  a 
king  after  their  own  heart."  His  income  from 
rapacious  taxation  was  the  equivalent  of  two  million 
dollars  annually.  His  well  nigh  absolute  and  tyran- 
nous power  is  shown  in  his  oppression  of  Tyre  and 
Sidon,  whose  commerce  he  had  impeded  if  not 
ruined,  and  by  his  favoritism  to  Beyrout.  Evidently, 
this  Herod  is  one  of  the  monsters  of  history,  "  crafty, 
selfish,  extravagant,  vainglorious,  unprincipled  and 
licentious."  In  his  "Napoleon  le  Petit,"  Victor 
Hugo  has  the  following  paragraph,  colossal  in  mer- 
ited sarcasm: 

"  History  has  its  tigers.  The  historians,  those  im- 
mortal keepers  of  ferocious  animals,  exhibit  to  the 
nations  that  imperial  menagerie.  Tacitus  has  seized 
and  confined  eight  or  ten  of  these  tigers  in  the  iron 
cages  of  his  style.  Behold  them!  they  are  frightful 
and  superb;  their  spots  constitute  a  part  of  their 
beauty.     This  is  Nimrod,  the  hunter  of  men;  that  is 

10 


146  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

Busiris,  the  tyrant  of  Egypt;  that  other  is  Phalaris, 
who  caused  men  to  be  baked  alive  in  a  brazen  bull, 
that  he  might  hear  the  bull  bellow;  here  is 
Ahasuerus,  who  tore  the  scalps  from  the  heads  of 
the  seven  Maccabees,  and  caused  them  to  be  roasted 
alive;  there  is  Nero,  the  burner  of  Rome,  who 
wrapped  the  Christians  in  wax  and  bitumen,  and  set 
them  on  fire  like  torches;  there  is  Domitian;  here  is 
Caracalla;  there  is  Heliogabalus;  that  other  is  Com- 
modus,  who  has  this  merit  the  more  in  the  horror 
he  inspires,  that  he  was  the  son  of  Marcus  Aurelius; 
there  are  the  Czars;  those,  the  Sultans;  there  go 
the  popes, — behold  among  them  the  tiger  Borgia! 
see  Philip  called  the  Good,  as  the  Furies  were  called 
Eumenides;  see  Richard  III.,  sinister  and  deformed; 
behold,  with  his  great  face  and  huge  belly,  Henry 
YIII.,  who,  of  five  wives  that  he  had,  murdered 
three!  see  Christiern  II.,  the  Nero  of  the  North; 
behold  Philip  II.,  the  demon  of  the  South!  They 
are  frightful;  hear  them  roar;  consider  them  one 
after  the  other.  The  historian  brings  them  out 
before  you;  the  historian  exhibits  them,  furious  and 
terrible,  at  the  side  of  the  cage,  opens  for  you  their 
jaws,  lets  you  see  their  teeth,  shows  you  their  claws. 
You  can  say  of  every  one  of  them,  *It  is  a  royal 
tiger.'  In  truth  they  have  been  taken  upon  their 
thrones.  History  leads  them  forth  across  the  ages. 
She  takes  care  that  they  shall  not  die ;  they  are  her 
tigers." 
Victor  Hugo  neglects    to  name  him,  but  Herod 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  147 

Agrippa  I.  belongs  in  this  cage.  In  him  there  were 
the  two  requisites  for  a  wholesale  persecution  of  the 
church.  Being  a  Jew,  he  hated  Christians,  and  being 
a  king,  he  had  the  authority  to  execute.  In  the  da3^s 
of  Pontius  Pilate  the  Jews  were  greatly  troubled  to 
get  Jesus  crucified,  for  there  stood  the  Koman 
authority  precisely  in  the  way  of  their  designs. 
They  could  not  defy  it,  and  to  placate  it  incurred 
risk  and  humiliation.  But  nov/  they  have  a  superb 
tool  in  that  trinity  of  Jew,  king,  and  monster.  Per- 
haps a  general  persecution  was  planned,  such  as  that 
under  Nero,  or  Domitian,  or  Trajan,  or  Diocletian; 
or  such  as  the  later  persecutions  of  Protestants  by 
Roman  Catholics  in  France  and  Germany  and  Spain 
and  Portugal  and  Holland,  under  that  most  awful 
and  infernal  perversion  of  the  religious  sentiment 
known  as  the  Inquisition.  The  conditions  were  all 
present  for  such  an  attack.  There  was  the  religious 
intolerance  of  the  Jews,  which,  like  a  smouldering 
flame,  had  been  held  in  check  for  thirteen  years,  or 
possibly  fourteen,  counting  from  the  day  of  Pente- 
cost; the  religious  and  the  political  functions  of  the 
state  were  in  accord  for  the  first  time  since  the  birth 
of  Jesus,  and  the  king  cared  to  make  himself  popu- 
lar with  the  multitude  at  the  expense  of  a  despised 
sect.  If  such  was  the  plan,  and  if  the  apostles 
James  and  Peter  were  intended  to  be  but  the  first 
sufferers  in  a  general  destruction,  then  the  miracu- 
lous interference,  by  which  Peter  was  saved  to  the 
Christians    and   Herod   was    lost    to   their    enemies, 


148  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

appears  to  us  as  the  arm  of  the  Lord  shielding  his 
young  church. 

And  may  we  not  see  in  this  kindly  protection  of 
his  church  an  amazing  extension  of  mercy  and  of 
evidence  to  the  nation  also?  The  Savior's  merciful 
offer  of  cumulative  evidence  to  the  rebellious  nation 
has  been  noted  previously,  but  an  attempted  sum- 
mary and  emphasis  of  it  is  now  in  place.  The  resur- 
rection of  Jesus  should  have  been  sufficient ;  to  that 
is  added  the  miracle  of  Pentecost;  a  church  num- 
bering thousands,  and  endued  with  marvelous  pow- 
ers of  love  and  speech  and  prayer,  rises  up  as  if  by 
magic;  the  apostles,  being  imprisoned,  are  miracu- 
lously released ;  Stephen's  speech  is  irresistible;  per- 
secution itself  ministers  to  the  enlargement  of  the 
church,  and  now,  in  climax  of  evidence,  if  there  can 
be  climax  after  the  resurrection,  Peter  is  unaccount- 
ably delivered  from  prison,  and  Herod  suffers  an 
awful  death.  Surely  in  all  this  the  Savior's  pierced 
hands  are  still  uplifted  before  the  gaze  of  the  nation, 
and  the  people  are  still  invited  to  look,  and  believe, 
and  cry  out,  as  Thomas  did,  *'My  Lord  and  my 
God."  Will  this  people  never  relent?  Will  they 
never  repent?  Will  they  forever  stand  in  fierce 
opposition  to  incarnate  love  and  reason?  Will  they 
persist  in  cherishing  '*  the  passions  that  make  earth 
a  hell?"  **Ah,  sinful  nation,  a  people  laden  with 
iniquity,  a  Seed  of  evil-doers,  children  that  are  cor- 
rupters: they  have  forsaken  the  Lord,  they  have  pro- 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS  149 

voked  the  Holy  One  of  Israel  unto  anger,  they  are 
gone  away  backward." 

Repent  or  perish,  was  the  burden  of  John  the 
Baptist's  message;  it  was  the  burden,  likewise,  of 
the  preaching  and  the  life  of  Jesus ;  and  his  church 
was  still  crying  out  with  irresistible  speech,  and 
wonderful  growth,  and  miracles  of  prayer  and  de- 
liverance, Kepent  or  perish !  The  warning  is  older 
than  John  the  Baptist,  and  more  recent  also  than 
Christ  and  his  apostles.  Isaiah  repeats  it  many 
times  in  chapters  of  righteous  wrath  and  deepest 
pathos;  Jeremiah  mingles  it  with  his  sobs  and 
prayers  and  pleadings;  and  these  greater  prophets 
are  joined  by  many  a  Minor  Prophet,  such  as  Micah 
and  Hosea  and  Habakkuk,  both  in  the  sternness  of 
their  denunciation  of  sin  and  in  the  pathos  of  their 
plea  for  repentance.  Gibbon  in  his  *' Decline  and 
Fall  of  Rome,"  and  Carlyle  in  his  "French  Revolu- 
tion," and  Victor  Hugo  in  his  "Les  Miserables " 
are  but  modern  voices  upraised  with  the  mighty 
comments  of  history  in  defense  and  confirmation  of 
the  ancient  prophets. 

"  The  Lord  will  roar  from  Zion, 
From  Jerusalem  will  he  utter  his  voice; 
And  the  pastures  of  the  shepherds  will  mourn, 
And  the  head  of  Carmel  will  be  parched." 

This  from  Amos  is  but  one  example  of  the  everlast- 
ing warning  against  the  consequences  of  sin.  Or 
it  may  take  this  form: 


150  STUDIES    IN   ACTS 

"  Rome  shall  perish ;  write  that  word 
On  the  blood  that  she  has  spilt; 
Perish,  hopeless  and  abhorred, 
Deep  in  ruin  as  in  guilt." 

Or  it  may  take  this  form:  "And  as  some  spake  of 
the  temple,  how  it  was  adorned  with  goodly  stones 
and  gifts,  he  said:  As  for  these  things  which  ye 
behold,  the  days  will  come,  in  the  which  there  shall 
not  be  left  one  stone  upon  another  that  shall  not 
be  thrown  down."  When  we  look  for  the  comment 
of  history  upon  this  prediction  of  Jesus,  and  upon 
the  course  of  the  Israelites  in  their  rejection  and 
their  attempted  destruction  of  him,  and  in  their 
rejection  of  his  church  and  their  attempted  destruc- 
tion of  it,  we  have  only  to  turn  to  the  account  of 
the  siege  of  Jerusalem  and  the  devastation  of  Judaea 
by  the  armies  of  Rome  in  the  years  of  69  and  70. 

The  murder  of  James,  the  arrest  of  Peter,  and 
the  intended  general  persecution,  were  steps  of  the 
downward  way  along  which  this  nation  was  walking 
so  consistently  to  ruin.  The  release  of  the  Apostle 
Peter  and  the  death  of  Herod  were  the  plans  of 
Providence  protecting  the  church,  and  seeking  to 
turn  the  nation  from  destruction. 

Peter  was  saved  by  the  punctiliousness  of  the 
king  and  the  prayers  of  the  Christians.  Though 
the  king  would  murder,  and  murder  for  political 
capital,  yet  he  would  not  do  it  during  the  Passover. 
This  gave  the  opportunity  for  earnest  and  united  pray- 
er in  the  apostle's  behalf.     Prayer  is  the  language  of 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  151 

extremity,  and  the  answer  to  it  is  God's  opportunity. 
When  Jesus  was  in  agony  he  prayed,  and  when 
the  members  of  his  church  could  lift  no  hand 
of  help  to  their  leader  they  turned  to  God. 
And  the  prayers  both  of  the  Master  and  of  his 
church  were  answered, — his  in  resignation,  theirs  by 
the  angel  of  deliverance.  While  they  were  praying 
Peter  was  knocking  at  the  door,  for  he  had  con- 
sidered the  thing,  and  he  would  make  himself  known ; 
the  news  should  run  from  house  to  house  throughout 
the  whole  church,  and  in  his  deliverance  the  hand 
of  the  Lord  should  be  exalted. 

Here  follows  one  of  the  strangest  of  the  incon- 
sistencies of  our  poor  mortal  style  of  faith.  These 
Christians  believed;  they  prayed;  they  had  seen 
miracle  upon  miracle;  yet  they  declared  the  maiden 
mad  who  reported  to  them  the  answer  to  their 
prayers;  they  were  incredulous,  they  said:  "It  is 
his  angel!"  Are  we  not  of  the  same  lineage?  Do 
we  not  reason  while  we  pray,  counting  one  by  one, 
and  saying:  Here  is  the  limit  to  the  Lord's  hand? 
Behold  the  two  chains,  and  the  two  soldiers,  and 
the  prison  door,  and  the  keepers  of  the  door,  and 
the  iron  gate  leading  to  the  city!  No,  it  is  impos- 
sible. We  will  pray,  but  God  cannot  answer  that 
way.  May  be  Herod  will  relent.  May  be  the  peo- 
ple will  not  clamor  for  the  apostle's  death.  May 
be — but  God  can  break  those  chains  and  open  those 
doors  easier  than  move  the  hearts  of  that  king  and 
his  stubborn    people.      The   iron   gate   *'  opened    to 


152  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

them  of  his  own  accord,"  but  the  will  of  Herod 
moved  not.  Perhaps  the  Lord  knows  the  easier 
way  to  the  deliverance  of  his  servants.  Perhaps 
the  lesser  miracles  astonish  us  most. 

The  death  of  Herod,  so  simply  related  and  so 
summarily  dismissed  in  this  chapter,  is  described 
at  length  by  Josephus  as  follows:  '*Now  when 
Agrippa  had  reigned  three  years  over  all  Judaea, 
he  came  to  the  city  of  Csesarea,  which  was  formerly 
called  Strato's  Tower,  and  there  he  exhibited  shows 
in  honor  of  Caesar,  upon  his  being  informed  that 
there  was  a  certain  festival  celebrated  to  make 
vows  for  his  safety.  At  which  festival  a  great 
multitude  was  gotten  together  of  the  principal  per- 
sons and  such  as  were  of  dignity  thoughout  his 
province.  On  the  second  day  of  which  shows  he 
put  on  a  garment  made  wholly  of  silver  and  of  a 
contexture  truly  wonderful,  and  came  into  the 
theater  early  in  the  morning,  at  which  time  the 
silver  of  his  garment  being  illumined  by  the  fresh 
reflection  of  the  sun's  rays  upon  it,  shone  out  after 
a  surprising  manner,  and  was  so  resplendent  as  to 
spread  a  dread  and  shuddering  over  those  that 
looked  intently  upon  it,  and  presently  his  flatterers 
cried  out,  one  from  one  place,  and  another  from 
another  (though  not  for  his  good)  that  he  was  a 
god.  And  they  added:  Be  thou  merciful  unto  us, 
for  although  we  have  hitherto  reverenced  thee  only 
as  a  man,  yet  we  will  henceforth  own  thee  as  supe- 
rior to  mortal    nature.      Upon    this    the    king    did 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  153 

neither  rebuke  them  nor  reject  their  impious  flat- 
tery. But  as  he  presently  afterwards  looked  up 
he  saw  an  owl  sitting  upon  a  certain  rope  over  his 
head,  and  immediately  understood  that  this  bird  was 
the  messenger  of  ill  tidings,  as  it  had  once  been 
the  messenger  of  good  tidings  to  him;  and  fell  into 
the  deepest  sorrow.  A  violent  pain  also  arose  in 
his  belly,  having  begun  with  great  severity.  He 
therefore  looked  upon  his  friends  and  said :  *  I 
whom  you  call  a  god  am  commanded  presently  to 
depart  this  life,  while  Providence  thus  reproves  the 
lying  words  you  just  now  said  to  me,  and  I  who 
was  called  by  you  immortal  am  immediately  to  be 
hurried  away  to  death.  But  I  am  bound  to  accept 
what  Providence  allots  as  it  pleases  God,  for  we 
have  by  no  means  lived  ill,  but  in  a  splendid, 
happy  manner.'  When  he  said  this  his  pain  became 
violent.  Accordingly  he  was  carried  into  the  palace, 
and  the  rumor  went  abroad  everywhere  that  he 
would  certainly  die  in  a  little  while.  And  when 
he  had  been  quite  worn  out  by  the  pain  in  his 
bowels  for  five  days,  he  departed  this  life." 

There  are  deaths  that  seem  judicial.  More  than 
the  course  of  nature  and  the  force  or  the  play  of  cir- 
cumstances seems  to  be  involved  in  this  one  of 
Herod.  The  death  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes  is  a 
striking  parallel  to  it.  The  account  may  be  found 
in  the  ninth  chapter  of  the  Second  book  of  Macca- 
bees. Threatening  to  make  Jerusalem  the  common 
burying-place   of  the  Jews,   he   was   smitten   with   a 


154  STUDIES    IN    ACTS 

remediless  pain  in  the  bowels;  at  last  his  flesh  fell 
away;  worms  rose  up  out  of  him;  his  presence  was 
unendurable  to  his  army.  Loathed  by  others  and  a 
horrer  to  himself,  he  died  finally  in  a  strange  coun- 
try, in  the  mountains,  branded  by  his  historian  as  a 
murderer  and  a  blasphemer.  Charles  IX.  of  France, 
who  gave  the  order  for  the  slaughter  of  the  Hugue- 
nots, crying  furiously,  *'Kill  them  all  that  none  be 
left  to  reproach  me,"  died  in  less  than  two  years  after 
the  awful  day  of  St.  Bartholomew.  Prof.  Fisher 
says,  "On  his  deathbed  brief  intervals  of  sleep  were 
disturbed  by  horrible  visions.  He  suffered  from  vio- 
lent hemorrhages,  and  sometimes  awoke  bathed  in 
blood,  which  recalled  to  his  mind  the  torrents  of 
blood  shed  by  his  orders  on  that  dreadful  night.  In 
his  dreams  he  beheld  the  bodies  of  the  dead,  floating 
on  the  Seine,  and  heard  their  agonizing  cries."  In 
company  with  these  one  other  may  be  named  whose 
cringing  and  shameful  death  was  scarcely  a  match 
for  his  mean  and  murderous  life.  Nero,  who  was 
saluted  as  a  god,  and  the  savior  of  the  world;  who 
IDrocured  the  murder  of  his  mother;  who  kicked  his 
second  wife  to  death;  who  set  Rome  on  fire,  and 
played  the  fiddle  while  he  saw  it  burning;  who  lit  up 
his  gardens  with  Christians  dipped  in  tar  and  set 
blazing;  who  polluted  politics,  and  degraded  society, 
and  contaminated  everything  that  he  touched ;  Nero, 
political  harlequin,  sensualist,  clown,  dilettante,  cow- 
ard, assassin,  incendiary,  persecutor,  matricide,  uxori- 
cide, wholesale  murderer,  above  all  others  the  shame. 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS  155 

the  terror,  the  brute,  the  fiend  incarnate, — Nero,  at 
last  despised  of  Rome  and  deserted  by  his  armies, 
kicked  over  the  table  where  he  was  sitting,  packed 
poison  in  a  golden  box  expecting  to  need  it,  decided 
to  mount  the  rostrum  and  appeal  to  the  people,  then 
threatened  to  rush  into  the  Tiber,  but  set  off  instead 
to  the  villa  of  a  friend,  barefooted,  in  a  faded  coat, 
with  masked  face.  Once  there,  cringing,  whining, 
vacillating,  he  had  not  the  courage  to  commit  suicide. 
He  ordered  his  grave  digged ;  he  collected  marble  for 
its  adornment,  and  wood  for  his  funeral  pyre,  and 
begged  some  one  to  show  him  how  to  die.  In  the 
last  moment,  when  the  horses'  hoofs  were  clatter- 
ing around  him,  and  the  centurion  approached  to 
arrest  him,  he  held  a  dagger  to  his  throat,  and  the 
hand  of  a  literary  slave  thrust  it  in.  As  the  death- 
stare  came  upon  him  they  were  surprised  that  his 
eyes  should  seem  to  be  starting  from  his  head. 
Would  that  of  such  dying  wretches  we  could  so 
much  as  speak  in  Schiller's  fine  phrase: 

"O  thou  sinner  majestic, 
All  thy  terrible  part  is  now  played." 

But  these  sinners  are  not  majestic;  they  are  mean. 
Side  by  side  in  the  twelfth  chapter  of  Acts  there 
rests  the  record  of  the  first  martyr  apostle  and  the 
first  king  who  dared  to  lay  his  hand  upon  an  apostle. 
Peter  and  Paul  perished  under  Nero,  and  Nero  per- 
ished amidst  political  turmoils  and  personal  terrors 
that  were  unspeakable.     Jerusalem  and  Kome  in  the 


156  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

persons  of  their  representatives  rejected  the  Savior 
of  the  world,  and  Josephus  has  painted  for  us  in 
lurid  pictures  the  destruction  of  the  one,  and  Gibbon 
in  stately  chapters  the  fall  of  the  other. 

"Why  do  the  heathen  rage, 
And  the  people  imagine  a  vain  thing? 
The  kings  of  the  earth  set  themselves, 
And  their  rulers  take  counsel  together 
Against  the  Lord,  and  against  his  Anointed,  q saying, 
Let  us  break  their  bands  asunder, 
And  cast  away  their  cords  from  us. 
He  that  sitteth  in  the  heavens  shall  laugh; 
The  Lord  shall  have  them  in  derision. 
Be  wise  now,  therefore,  O  ye  kings; 
Be  instructed,  ye  judges  of  the  earth. 
Serve  the  Lord  with  fear, 
And  rejoice  with  trembling. 
Kiss  the  Son  lest  he  be  angry. 
And  ye  perish  from  the  way 
When  his  wrath  is  kindled  but  a  little. 
Blessed  are  all  they  that  put  their  trust  in  him." 


VIII. 

THE  FIRST   FOREIGN  MISSIONARIES 


"Paul  as  a  missionary  and  shepherd  of  souls  is  great  indeed. 
There  is  nothing-  in  all  antiquity  to  compare  with  the  record  of 
his  travels  and  triumphs.  Feeble  in  body,  living  by  his  toil  like  a 
working-man,  this  weaver  of  Tarsus  enters  the  vast  world  of 
Paganism,  another  Alexander,  to  conquer  the  faith  and  the  reason 
of  mankind.  Merely  to  form  such  a  resolution  was  heroic.  Dark- 
ness covered  the  earth;  the  peoples,  to  use  the  language  of  the 
prophet,  were  sitting  in  the  valley  and  the  shadow  of  deg/bh.  Paul 
entered,  alone  at  first,  into  these  depths  of  darkness,  with  the  Gos- 
pel torch  in  his  hand;  and  wherever  he  went  he  left  in  his  track 
from  Damascus  to  Rome  a  succession  of  young  expanding  churches, 
the  radiant  centers  of  new  life,  the  fruitful  germs  of  modern  society 
forming  already  in  the  midst  of  the  old  world.    In  all  this,  I  repeat, 

there  is  something  truly  heroic.  "—Sabatier. 

158 


VIII. 

THE  FIRST  FOREIGN  MISSIONARIES. 

"Separate  me  Barnabas  and  Saul  for  tlie  work  whereunto  I  have 
appointed  them." — Acts  xiii.  2. 

The  Holy  Spirit  speaks.  The  church  obeys.  With 
fasting  and  prayer  and  the  laying  on  of  hands  Bar- 
nabas and  Saul  are  sent  away.  Thus  the  Autioch 
church  sacrifices  her  foremost  teachers,  and  becomes 
the  mother  of  missions.  A  more  memorable  journey, 
under  feebler  human  auspices,  and  fraught  with 
greater  consequences  was  never  undertaken.  Many  a 
king  in  fullness  of  royal  trappings,  with  armies  fol- 
lowing, has  set  out  upon  missions  so  mean  that  his- 
tory has  refused  to  take  the  smallest  note  of  them ; 
but  these  two  poor  Jews  and  their  majestic  mission 
will  never  be  forgotten. 

The  Antioch  Church  was  herself  the  result  of  mis- 
sionary enterprise,  but  rather  incidentally  so  than 
intentionally  so.  In  her  inception  and  growth  the 
genius  of  Christianity  outran  the  definite  plans  of  its 
foremost  advocates.  Not  the  apostles  and  prophets 
of  Jerusalem,  but  *'  men  of  Cyprus  and  Cyrene  "  first 
spoke  to  the  Greeks  in  Antioch,  *'  preaching  the  Lord 
Jesus."  These  men  were  not  put  forth  by  the  Jeru- 
salem church,  but  by  the  hand  of  persecution,  and 

159 


160  STUDIES    IN   ACTS 

their  missionary  work  sprang  from  the  daring  spon- 
taneity of  Christian  love.  Divine  love  is  a  divine 
leaven,  and  whether  systematically  or  otherwise,  it 
works  wherever  it  is,  its  affinity  being  for  man  as 
man.  This  is  the  secret  both  of  sporadic  and  of 
systematic  missions. 

But  now  in  the  mission  of  Barnabas  and  Saul  there 
is  definiteness  of  purpose  and  plan.  The  circle  wid- 
ens. The  church  is  in  the  pathway  of  progress.  The 
genius  of  the  Gospel  asserts  itself  in  a  way  hitherto 
untried.  In  the  conversion  of  Cornelius,  and  the 
acknowledged  legitimacy  of  the  work  among  the 
Greeks  of  Antioch,  the  freedom  of  the  Gospel  from 
the  forms  of  Mosaism  has  been  declared.  The  very 
success  of  the  Gospel  in  Antioch  was  the  demonstra- 
tion of  its  power  over  Gentiles  and  idolaters.  Thus 
the  foundation  for  foreign  work  was  laid,  and  it 
was  most  fitting  that  the  church  in  Antioch  should 
build  thereon. 

It  is  highly  significant  that  this  new  movement  pro- 
ceeded under  the  leadership  of  new  men.  Except  for 
the  council  in  Jerusalem  "the  apostles  and  elders  " 
drop  out  of  the  history.  Peter  is  lost  sight  of. 
From  the  home  of  Cornelius  we  follow  him  back  to 
Jerusalem ;  we  listen  to  his  defense  of  that  high  deed 
of  Gentile  conversion  in  Csesarea,  and  thereupon  we 
practically  bid  him  farewell.  His  primacy  seems  at 
an  end,  and  the  stage  of  history  in  the  book  of  Acts 
is  visited  no  more  by  the  college  of  the  twelve.  Two 
apostles  (for  Barnabas  and  Saul  are  both  called  apos- 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  161 

ties  in  Acts  xiv.  14),  unknown  to  the  Pentecost  Chris- 
tians, take  the  leadership  of  the  evangelistic  move- 
ment, and  fill  the  pages  of  its  recital  to  the  exclusion 
of  all  others.  Let  those  who  insist  on  the  absolute- 
ness of  the  number  twelve,  and  on  the  continued 
primacy  of  Peter,  note  this  addition  to  the  number, 
and  note  also  that  if  the  Apostle  Peter  stood  first  on 
Pentecost  and  in  the  home  of  Cornelius,  the  Apostle 
Paul  stands  first  in  Cyprus,  and  Iconium,  and  Derbe, 
and  Lystra,  and  Ephesus,  and  Philippi,  and  Athens, 
and  Corinth,  and  Rome.  The  Holy  Spirit  is  not 
bound  to  names  or  numbers,  and  there  may  be  for  us 
a  lesson  in  the  fact  that  the  witnesses  who  were 
especially  trained  by  the  Master  himself  are  now 
superseded  by  those  who  never  knew  him  face  to 
face  in  his  mighty  style  of  speech  and  deed. 

The  yoke-fellowship  of  Barnabas  and  Saul  is  de- 
lightful, and  it  is  suggestive  of  the  methods  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  that  he  should  send  these  two  tried 
friends  forth  on  such  a  mission.  Barnabas  was  the 
first  to  trust  Saul  and  vouch  for  him  in  Jerusalem; 
when  he  needed  a  helper  in  Antioch  he  thought  of 
Saul  far  away  in  Tarsus,  and  journeyed  thither  to 
find  him;  then  he  brought  him  to  Antioch,  and  they 
worked  together  for  a  whole  year;  when  there  was  a 
charity  offering  to  be  sent  to  Jerusalem,  Barnabas 
and  Saul  were  intrusted  with  it;  they  returned  to- 
gether from  Jerusalem,  and  now  they  are  sent  out 
together  to  brave  the  hardships  and  dangers  and  sor- 
rows and  joys  of  missionary  pioneering  in  a  pagan 
11 


162  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

world.     The  friendship  of  Barnabas  and  Saul  in  the 

New  Testament  matches  that  of  David  and  Jonathan 

in  the  Old,  only  the  former  is  unfortunately  marred 

at  the  last.     Still,  for  all  that  dissension  about  Mark, 

no  doubt  they  would  both  join  David  in  saying  each 

of  the  other, — 

"I  am  distressed  for  thee,  my  brother; 
Very  pleasant  hast  thou  been  unto  me ; 
Thy  love  was  w^onderful,  passing  the  love  of  women." 

Barnabas'  fitness  for  the  foreign  field  is  seen  in 
this,  that  he  was  an  experienced  Christian,  having 
been  very  early  a  member  of  the  Jerusalem  church; 
that  he  was  self-sacrificing  and  generous,  having 
given  his  property  to  the  church ;  that  he  was  gifted 
in  the  ministries  of  exhortation  and  consolation; 
that  he  was  quick  to  love  and  trust  and  see  the  better 
side  of  everybody,  as  shown  in  his  ready  reception  of 
Saul,  and  the  introduction  he  gave  him  to  the  mother 
church;  and  that  already  he  had  had  experience  in 
Antioch,  which  was  at  the  first  practically  a  foreign 
field.  In  its  inception  he  seems  to  have  been  the 
leader  in  the  work,  having  been  first  trusted  by  the 
Jerusalem  church,  and  first  named  by  the  Antioch 
church.  Early  in  their  first  tour  abroad,  however, 
Saul's  name  was  changed  to  Paul  (Ch.  xiii.  9),  and 
from  that  time  on  he  was  the  recognized  leader  in 
the  work.  At  a  later  date  Barnabas  developed  two 
points  of  weakness;  in  Antioch  he  was  *' carried 
away"  by  the  dissimulation  of  Peter  and  the  preju- 
dices of  certain  Jerusalem  Judaizers,  and  in  Paul's 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS  163 

opinion  his  love  for  his  nephew  John  Mark  warped 
his  judgment  in  the  choice  of  a  fellow  minister  for 
their  proposed  second  journey.  Paul  would  have 
nothing  to  do  with  a  deserter.  "So  Barnabas  took 
Mark  and  sailed  away  to  Cyprus,"  and  thereafter  we 
hear  nothing  of  them  except  as  they  are  mentioned  in 
a  generous  way  by  Paul  in  various  of  his  letters. 
Evidently  Mark  was  restored  to  the  confidence  of 
Paul,  and  became  "  profitable  to  him  for  the  minis- 
try." (II.  Tim.  iv.  11).  Perhaps  both  Paul  and  Bar- 
nabas were  excusable  for  the  quarrel.  At  all  events, 
the  missionary  forces  were  doubled,  and  later  recon- 
ciliations followed. 

The  parting  of  the  ways  of  these  two  mission- 
aries is  the  signal  at  which  the  writer  of  Acts  drops 
the  curtain  upon  Barnabas,  as  previously  upon 
Pe|:er.  During  the  years  47  and  48  they  labored 
together;  in  50  they  visited  Jerusalem  together  in 
behalf  of  the  liberty  of  the  Gentiles;  in  51  they 
parted,  and  the  rest  of  Acts  from  that  date,  begin- 
ning with  the  fortieth  verse  of  the  fifteenth 
chapter,  is  devoted  to  the  labors  and  trials  of  the 
Apostle  Paul.  This  portion  of  the  book  may  there- 
fore be  called  a  missionary  manual,  or  it  may  be 
styled  the  biography  of   the  prince  of   missionaries. 

In  attempting  to  speak  of  St.  Paul's  apostleship, 
or  what  is  the  same,  his  missionary  character  and 
career,  one  feels  the  burden  both  of  the  greatness 
of  the  theme  and  the  wealth  of  material.  Even 
Luke's    missionary    biography    is    not    an   adequate 


164  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

presentation  of  the  man  and  of  his  work;  our 
hero's  autobiography  must  be  taken  into  account, 
and  that  means  the  whole  of  his  thirteen  epistles. 
To  the  greater  purposes  of  his  writings  an  autobi- 
ography was  incidental,  but  inevitable.  No  one 
would  accuse  him  of  setting  out  intentionally  upon 
such  a  poor  business  as  the  writing  of  an  autobi- 
ography, but  his  life  was  so  identified  with  his 
works  that  in  telling  about  the  latter  he  must  bring 
whole  pages  out  of  the  former.  His  tears,  his 
groans,  his  prayers,  his  joys,  his  logic,  and  his  love 
were  in  the  churches  he  established,  and  they  are 
also  in  the  pages  he  has  written.  The  defense  of 
his  apostolic  office,  the  recital  of  the  perils  and 
persecutions  he  endured,  his  championship  of  Gen- 
tile Christianity,  and  his  reasons  for  it,  his  fatherly 
care  of  the  churches,  his  passionate  love  of 
Christ,  his  heroic  endurance  in  the  cause  of  Christ; 
and  the  background  to  all  this,  the  hatred,  the 
zeal,  the  conscience  with  which  he  once  persecuted 
Christ — in  short,  the  soul  of  the  man  with  its 
storms  and  revolutions,  with  its  peace  and  prayers 
and  bitter  tears,  with  its  unconquerable  faith  and 
unspeakable  visions,  and  finally,  with  its  eager 
expectancy  of  the  crown  of  life  eternal,  speaks  in 
every  one  of  his  immortal  letters.  His  soul  is  a 
part  of  his  style.  His  pen  was  vital  with  his  own 
blood.  If  he  wrote  at  all  he  could  not  but  pro- 
duce an  autobiography.  For  this  reason  his  epis- 
tles  must  be   in  our  mind's  eye  quite  as  much  as 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS  165 

the   book  of  Acts   while  a  feeble   attempt   is   made 
to  characterize  him. 

It  is  Dot  proposed  to  speak  here  of  the  Apostle 
Paul's  -missionary  work,  but  of  his  equipments  and 
character  as  a  missionary.  Nature  was  lavish  in 
her  endowments  upon  him  of  mind  and  heart 
and  will.  He  was  perfectly  balanced  in  love,  in 
logic,  and  in  purpose,  and  his  mold  was  that  of 
a  giant.  His  home  life  in  Tarsus  must  have  con- 
tributed in  a  goodly  degree  to  his  knowledge  of 
Greek,  and  of  the  Greek-speaking,  pagan  peoples 
of  Western  Asia.  To  such  a  nature  as  his  this 
would  bring  by  revulsion  a  more  intensely  Jewish, 
but  also,  after  his  conversion,  a  more  cosmopolitan 
style  of  thought.  His  education  in  Jerusalem  at 
the  feet  of  Gamaliel  gave  him  an  intimate  ac- 
quaintance with  the  law  of  Moses,  and  made  him 
a  zealot  for  the  traditions  of  his  race.  The  re- 
flection of  his  pride  and  zeal  in  race  and  caste 
and  legalism  is  in  many  a  passage  of  his  epistles, 
where  the  experience  is  turned  to  good  account  in 
his  debates  with  Judaizing  Christians.  "If  any 
other  man  thinketh  that  he  hath  whereof  he  might 
trust  in  the  flesh,  I  more;  circumcised  the  eighth 
day,  of  the  stock  of  Israel,  of  the  tribe  of  Benjamin, 
an  Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews,  as  touching  the  law, 
a  Pharisee ;  concerning  zeal,  persecuting  the  church ; 
touching  the  righteousness  which  is  of  the  law, 
blameless."  Such  was  Saul  when  he  stood  listen- 
ing   to    the    speech   of    Stephen,    and    holding    the 


166  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

clothes  of  the  enraged  men  who  stoned  him  to  death. 
A  typical  man,  only  that  he  was  a  Jew;  a  typical 
Jew,  only  that  he  was  born  in  a  foreign  city;  a 
typical  Pharisee,  only  that  he  was  honest;  and  a 
typical  inquisitor,  only  that  he  was  converted. 
Farrar  has  invited  us  to  note  that  many  times  in 
the  providence  of  God  the  destroyer  of  a  creed  or 
system  has  been  bred  in  its  inmost  bosom.  Sakya 
Mouni,  in  Brahminism;  Luther,  in  Augustinianism ; 
Pascal,  in  Jesuitism;  Wesley  and  Whitefield,  in 
Anglicanism;  Paul,  in  Phariseeism.  Eevulsion 
against  false  and  deadly  systems  is  a  mighty  in- 
spiration to  great  and  honest  souls.  Paul  had  the 
inspiration  of  a  double  revulsion,  first  from  the 
heathen  environment  of  his  childhood  home;  and 
secondly,  from  the  equally  deadly,  if  not  quite  so 
abominable,  Pharisaic  environment  of  his  manhood 
home,  and  legal  studies. 

Add  to  all  this  his  point  blank  conversibn.  His 
change  was  a  complete  ''about  face."  In  a  double 
sense  he  was  smitten  to  the  earth,  and  in  a  double 
sense  he  saw  a  light  above  the  brightness  of  the  sun. 
Where  the  first  inquisitor  fell  to  the  ground  on  his 
way  to  Damascus  there  fell  also  his  pride  and  his 
prejudice,  the  former  in  his  own  people,  and  the 
latter  against  aliens;  in  his  baptism  he  buried  his 
old  life,  and  ever  afterward  counted  it  but  refuse 
that  he  might  win  Christ,  and  be  found  of  him,  not 
having  his  own  righteousness.  From  his  baptism 
he   arose   in   newness   of   life   to   walk   with   Christ. 


STUDIES    IN   ACTS  167 

There  is  nothing  half  and  half  about  him.  With 
the  Apostle  Peter,  release  from  the  law  was  a  long 
process,  requiring  repeated  revelations,  and  contin- 
ual supervision  of  the  Holy  Spirit;  with  the  Apostle 
Paul  this  release  was  like  the  snapping  of  a  chain, 
and  the  fall  of  dungeon  walls,  and  the  flash  of  noon- 
day light.  Immediately  he  seized  upon  the  genius 
of  the  Gospel,  and  the  logic  of  love  became  to  him 
the  soul  of  liberty.  Where  others  of  his  race 
groped  and  stumbled,  he  saw  and  ran;  and  the 
conclusions  to  which  they  were  forced  by  stress  of 
facts,  he  seized  by  grasp  of  intuition.  The  abso- 
lute and  sudden  revolution  in  his  mental  attitude 
is,  from  every  human  standpoint,  a  psychological 
enigma,  and  critics  adverse  to  the  Gospel  have  pro- 
nounced it  a  miracle.  His  cry  when  smitten  to  the 
earth,  ''Lord,  what  wilt  thou  have  me  to  do?"  was 
his  oath  of  allegiance  to  his  new-found  Lord.  It 
was,  to  him,  what  a  Roman  soldier  would  have  called 
the  sacramentum.  All  his  reverence  for  the  fathers, 
all  his  allegiance  to  the  law  of  the  fathers,  he  trans- 
ferred suddenly  and  irreversibly  to  Christ.  Like  a 
man  who  is  lost,  and  suddenly  finds  himself  in  an  old 
and  familiar  spot,  the  world  swung  round.  His  faith 
was  fixed  forever;  his  repentance  was  revolutionary; 
scales  fell  from  his  eyes ;  Christ  became  to  him  a  sun 
always  at  meridian;  he  uttered  the  word,  "Lord," 
and  the  word  went  with  him  to  his  dying  day. 
These  factors,  namely,  by  way  of  summary,  his  rich 
native   endowments,   his    liberal  education,   mingled 


168  STUDIES    IN   ACTS 

of  Greek  and  Hebrew  elements,  and  his  thorough 
conversion  accompanied  with  revulsion  from  pagan 
idolatry  and  Jewish  legalism,  made  him  the  cham- 
pion of  liberal  Christianity.  He  saw  the  antithesis 
in  nature,  and  the  inevitable  conflict  in  practice  be- 
tween love  and  law;  between  prohibition  and  inspira- 
tion; between  deadly  technicality  and  a  vital  spirit- 
uality. It  required  such  a  soul  to  break  the  crust 
of  custom,  and  to  declare  an  emancipation  from 
the  carnal  ordinances  and  empty  types  of  Mosaism ; 
to  show  that  circumcision  was  nothing,  and  uncir- 
cumcision  nothing;  to  rebuke  the  Gentile  Christians 
for  trying  to  follow  the  lead  of  Judaizers  in  the 
ol^servance  of  Mosaic  clean  meats  and  new  moons 
and  Sabbaths;  and  to  put  baptism  with  Christ,  new- 
ness of  manhood  in  Christ,  and  the  exaltation  of  the 
cross  of  Christ  in  absolute,  and  glorious,  and  ever- 
lasting antithesis  to  all  mere  legalism,  and  formalism, 
and  dogmatism,  and  sectarianism,  and  idolatry  of 
every  sort.  In  the  person  of  Peter  Christianity  had 
its  "apostle  of  the  rock;  "  in  John,  its  "apostle  of 
love;  "  in  Paul,  its  apostle  of  emancipation  and 
evangelization. 

And  his  work  of  emancipation  is  not  done  so  long 
as  the  church  is  burdened  with  rituals,  and  mum- 
meries, and  legalistic  notions  of  the  New  Testament, 
which  usurp  the  place  in  the  soul  of  a  vital  kinship 
with  Christ,  which  are  like  a  continual  malaria  to 
spirituality,  and  which  impede  the  way  of  progress; 
nor  his  work  of  evangelization,  so  long  as  hundreds 


STUDIES    IN   ACTS  169 

of  millions  of  our  race  still  sit  in  darkness  and  in 
the  shadow  of  death.  It  was  by  no  accident  that 
Luther  espoused  the  book  of  Galatians,  claiming  it 
for  his  bride,  and  that  the  Eeformation  followed. 
It  was  not  by  feeble  insight  into  the  needs  of  his 
times  that  he  called  the  book  of  Romans  ''the  mas- 
terpiece of  the  New  Testament,  and  the  purest  Gos- 
pel," assuring  us  that  it  can  never  be  too  much 
studied,  and  that  the  more  it  is  handled  the  more 
precious  it  becomes.  It  would  seem  morally  impos- 
sible to  come  under  the  mastery  of  the  Apostle 
Paul's  thought,  and  still  dote  upon  the  jots  and 
tittles,  the  trifles  and  technicalities,  that  vex  mis- 
guided disciples  and  minds  of  smaller  mould  than 
his.  In  the  reasonable  sacrifice  of  our  own  living 
bodies,  all  other  sacrifices,  whether  upon  Jewish  or 
pagan  altars,  are,  from  his  standpoint,  forever  ful- 
filled, and  done  for,  and  forgotten.  In  the  Sabbath 
rest  that  remains  for  the  children  of  God,  the  ever- 
lasting peace  of  soul  that  comes  of  repentance  and 
forgiveness,  all  other  Sabbaths  find  their  full  sig- 
nificance and  their  permanent  antitype,  and  the 
Mosaic  rest  days  are  transplaced  by  Christian  memo- 
rial ones.  Under  his  plea  for  justification  by  faith, 
the  whole  of  that  baneful,  all  but  world-wide  trust 
in  the  meritoriousness  of  works  goes  down  abso- 
lutely; and  under  his  law  of  love,  coupled  with  expe- 
diency, a  thousand  of  our  questions,  whether  trifling 
or  important,  about  times,  and  seasons,  and  rituals, 
and   vestments,  and   choirs,  and   societies,  and  gov- 


170  STUDIES    IN    ACTS 

ernments,  and  amusements  even,  are  at  once  re- 
moved from  the  arena  of  legalistic  and  dogmatic 
debate,  to  that  of  praj'er  and  brotherly  counsel,  and 
"the  common  sense  of  most."  Such  was  the  man 
whom  the  Holy  Spirit  thrust  forth  into  the  pagan 
world  to  be  first  and  freest,  the  ablest  and  safest 
herald  of  the  cross  to  those  peoples  whence  there 
has  sprung  by  the  lapse  of  centuries  our  Western 
Christendom.  The  divine  wisdom  of  the  choice  may 
be  seen  by  way  of  contrast  in  the  deplorable  misfits 
that  sometimes  get  themselves  into  our  mission 
fields  nowadays, — small  souls,  the  mouthpieces  of  a 
hobby  or  a  whim;  the  lispers  of  provincial  shibbo- 
leths; the  infallible  dogmatists,  who  cannot  forget 
that  they  are  the  tools  of  a  party  or  a  sect,  while 
presuming  to  herald  a  Savior  whose  truth  and  love 
are  as  universal  and  unfettered  as  the  rains  and 
rays  that  his  Father  and  ours  sends  upon  the  good 
and  bad  alike.  It  is  deplorable  when  gnat-strainers 
get  into  mission  fields,  microscopically  searching  out 
this  small  wing  of  heresy,  and  that  small  leg  of 
irregularity,  omitting,  meanwhile,  the  weightier  mat- 
ters of  mercy  and  truth,  and  swallowing  much  (as 
is  the  rule  with  such  characters)  that  is  big  with 
personal  animosity,  and  bitter  with  sectarian  hatred 
and  strife. 

A  few  other  points  must  be  noted  as  factors  in 
the  problem  of  the  Apostle  Paul's  immense  influ- 
ence. The  word  missionary  itself  is  suggestive  of 
the  first  that  may  be  named.     Translated,  the  word 


STUDIES    IN   ACTS  171 

apostle  must  read  missionary,  just  as  the  word  bap- 
tize, translated,  must  read  immerse.  Thus  we 
should  read,  *'Paul,  a  servant  of  Jesus  Christ,  called 
to  be  a  missionary,  separated  unto  the  Gospel  of 
God."  (Romans  i.  1.)  And  again,  "Paul,  called  to 
be  a  missionary  of  Jesus  Christ  through  the  will  of 
God."  (I.  Cor.  i.  1.)  And  again,  "Paul,  a  mission- 
ary not  from  men,  neither  through  man,  but  through 
Jesus  Christ,  and  God  the  Father,  who  raised  him 
from  the  dead."  (Gal.  i.  1.)  The  thought  of  send- 
ing, as  embodied  in  this  word,  was  a  predominant 
one  with  Christ,  and  the  thought  of  being  sent 
became  predominant  with  his  chiefly  chosen  twelve. 
After  a  night  of  prayer  he  called  to  him  his  dis- 
ciples, "and  he  chose  from  them  twelve,  whom  he 
named  missionaries."  (Luke  vi.  13.)  In  many  a 
form  the  Master  reiterates  the  thought.  "I  chose 
you  and  appointed  you  that  ye  should  go  and  bear 
fruit,  and  that  your  fruit  should  abide."  "As  the 
Father  hath  sent  me,  even  so  send  I  you."  This 
last  while  he  was  breathing  upon  them  and  saying, 
"Receive  ye  the  Holy  Spirit."  This  act  stands  very 
close,  both  in  point  of  time  and  in  the  Scripture 
context,  to  our  Lord's  final  message  to  his  mission- 
aries, the  crown  of  all  his  instructions,  namely,  "Go 
ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the  Gospel  to 
every  creature."  The  Apostle  Paul  came  under  the 
complete  mastery  of  this  predominant  thought. 
Though  he  acknowledged  himself  as  one  "born  out 
of  due  time,"  and  "not  meet  to  be  called  a  mis- 


]72  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

sionary  because  he  persecuted  the  church  of  God," 
yet  he  never  failed  to  defend  himself  as  one  dis- 
tinctively sent  of  Christ.  His  life  was  wrought  out 
under  this  ruling  ideal.  His  mission  was  to  be 
Christ's  missionary.  To  this  end  he  magnified  his 
office.  In  utter  abandonment  of  self  he  made  full 
proof  of  his  ministry,  seeking  by  every  means  lawful 
and  by  all  things  expedient  to  honor  his  '*  high  call- 
ing of  God  in  Christ. '* 

Again:  He  came  under  the  mastery  of  Christ's  sim- 
ple and  predominant  creed.  The  Apostle  Peter  saw 
no  more  clearly  than  the  Apostle  Paul  that  Christ 
is  all  and  in  all.  His  creed  was  Christ.  He  said,  "I 
know  whom  I  have  believed."  Christ,  to  the  Jews  a 
stumbling-block,  to  the  Greeks  foolishness,  was  to 
him  the  power  of  God,  and  the  wisdom  of  God.  Into 
whatever  dark  places  daylight  creeps,  it  may  still  be 
traced  back  to  the  sun.  So  of  the  activities  and 
the  teachings  of  Paul;  back  to  Christ  they  all  run, 
proclaiming  him  as  their  source.  This  singleness 
of  creed,  bodied  forth  in  the  sublime  personality  of 
Jesus,  and  declared  and  defended  by  Paul,  exclu- 
sively, and  without  compromise,  gave  him  immense 
power  over  decadent  Mosaism  and  the  destructive 
idolatries  of  the  pagan  world.  Through  the  preach- 
ing of  Christ  and  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  he 
wrought  moral  and  spiritual  revolution  wherever  he 
went.  Among  the  idolaters  of  Ephesus,  the  philoso- 
phers of  Athens,  and  the  rulers  of  Rome,  he  lifted 
up  his  voice  alike  in  the  name  of  Christ,  glorying 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS  173 

in  the  cross,  saying,  "I  am  not  ashamed  of  the 
Gospel,  for  it  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation,  to 
every  one  that  believeth,  to  the  Jew  first,  and  also 
to  the  Gentile."  This  made  him  an  iconoclast  of 
old  and  futile  forms ;  a  destroyer  of  hateful  and 
harmful  distinctions  between  man  and  man ;  a  cham- 
pion of  liberty  and  progress  to  the  church  and 
the  world;  a  wise  master-builder  of  churches;  a 
father  to  young  men  in  the  ministry;  a  collector 
and  distributer  of  alms,  and  an  unrivaled  writer  of 
letters  to  the  churches  and  children  of  his  Gospel 
ministry  and  love. 

Again :  The  Apostle  Paul  came  under  the  power 
of  a  predominant  purpose.  "Buried  with  Christ  in 
baptism, "^ — it  is  bis  own  phrase — he  arose  'Ho  walk 
in  newness  of  life."  As  he  voices  the  unity  of 
his  creed  in  many  forms  of  speech,  so  he  gives 
expression  to  his  singleness  of  purpose  in  a  multi- 
tude of  texts:  **For  me  to  live  is  Christ;  to  die  is 
gain."  *'I  live,  yet  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me; 
and  the  life  which  I  now  live  in  the  flesh,  I  live 
in  the  faith  of  the  Son  of  God."  "This  one  thing  I 
do:  forgetting  the  things  that  are  behind,  I  press 
toward  the  mark  of  the  prize  of  our  high  calling  in 
Christ  Jesus."  "I  determined  to  know  nothing 
among  you,  save  Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified." 
"Ye  are  all  the  sons  of  God  through  faith  in  Christ 
Jesus.  For  as  many  of  you  as  were  baptized  into 
Christ  have  put  on  Christ.  There  can  be  neither 
Jew  nor  Greek,  there  can  be  neither  bond  nor  free, 


174  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

there  can  be  no  male  and  female;  for  ye  are  one  in 
Christ  Jesus.  And  if  ye  are  Christ's,  then  are  ye 
Abraham's  seed,  and  heirs  according  to  the  prom- 
ise." "God  was  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  to 
himself."  "We  in  Christ's  stead  pray  you,  be  ye 
reconciled  to  God."  This  is  a  hasty  gleaning  of 
texts  showing  the  all-inclusive  because  all-exclusive 
purpose  of  Paul.  He  narrowed  that  he  might  deepen 
the  channel  of  his  life.  The  losing  of  life  in  order 
to  find  it  is  the  secret  of  all  great  living.  This 
was  Paul's  attainment  as  it  was  Christ's  command- 
ment, and  it  is  admirable.  It  made  him  a  tower 
of  strength  to  the  infant  church,  and  a  blessing  to 
all  ages.  Having  written  himself  down  in  a  lowly 
way  as  the  "bond-servant"  of  Jesus  Christ,  he  has 
shown  us  in  his  life  such  exaltation  as  comes  only 
by  the  way  of  the  readiest,  lowliest,  loftiest  service. 
Surely  if  our  Lord  ever  had  a  servant  upon  earth 
who  could  with  right  and  with  reverence  lay  claim 
to  the  stigmata  of  the  Master  himself,  saying,  "I 
bear  branded  on  my  body  the  marks  of  Jesus,"  that 
servant  was  the  missionary  Paul,  in  labors  more 
abundant  than  others,  "in  stripes  above  measure,  in 
prisons  more  frequent,  in  deaths  oft." 

In  the  last  place,  he  came  under  the  power  of  a 
predominant  love.  Farrar  in  his  life  of  Paul  calls 
the  thirteenth  chapter  of  I.  Corinthians  "the  most 
glorious  gem,  even  in  the  writings  of  St.  Paul." 
John  is  known  pre-eminently  as  the  apostle  of  love, 
but  he  nowhere  excels  Paul  in  his  teachings  regarding 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  175 

love  unless  it  is  when  he  gathers  up  the  whole  philos- 
ophy of  creation  and  religion  in  that  sublime  trinity 
of  words,  *'  God  is  love."  Moses  proved  himself  the 
worthy  leader  of  a  great  people  in  that  he  was  willing 
to  die  for  them,  and  his  strenuous,  determined,  anx- 
ious care  for  them  rushes  to  its  climax  of  expression 
in  this  self-sacrificial  prayer:  '*  Yet  now,  if  thou  wilt 
forgive  their  sin — ;  and  if  not,  blot  me,  I  pray  thee, 
out  of  the  book  which  thou  hast  written."  Paul 
reaches  the  same  climax  of  human  love  for  his  "  kins- 
men according  to  the  flesh"  when  he  says,  "I  could 
wish  myself  accursed  from  Christ  for  them."  Such 
words  are  so  foreign  to  us  that  they  astonish  us,  and 
we  try  to  explain  them  away.  But  Paul  meant  what 
he  said.  That  height  and  depth  of  love,  however 
foreign  it  may  be  to  a  church  shamefully  sejf-com- 
placent  in  non-apostolic,  non-missionary  lethargy,  was 
to  Paul  an  inspiration  born  of  the  self -sacrificial  love 
of  Jesus.  Moses  was  a  type  of  Christ;  Paul  was 
Christ's  disciple ;  the  one  is  a  forerunner,  the  other  a 
follower  of  the  Christ.  Yet  they  stand  side  by  side 
in  a  devotion  to  their  people  that  was  glorious,  and 
side  by  side  also  in  their  exaltation  to  an  eminence  of 
love  wherein  they  are  surpassed  only  by  One,  and  to 
that  One  they  both  direct  us,  saying,  each  in  his 
appropriate  and  peculiar  way,  ''Behold  the  Lamb  of 
God,  that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world." 

Such  was  the  man  whom  the  Holy  Spirit  chose, 
saying,  "  Separate  me  Barnabas  and  Saul  for  the 
work  whereunto  I  have  appointed  them,"  and  who 


176  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

was  sent  forth  into  the  world  of  reeking  paganism 
that  gathered  around  the  Mediterranean  Sea  in  order 
to  *'  kindle  a  fire  of  faith  that  should  burn  to  its  very 
water's  edge,"  but  who  in  doing  so  was  called  upon 
to  front  every  form  of  peril  by  sea  and  by  land, 
among  idolaters  and  among  false  brethren;  was 
called  upon  to  endure — but  no  language  can  match 
his  own — '*  Thrice  was  I  beaten  with  rods;  once  was 
I  stoned;  thrice  I  suffered  shipwreck;  anight  and  a 
day  I  have  been  in  the  deep.  In  weariness  and  pain- 
fulness,  in  watchings  often,  in  hunger  and  thirst,  in 
fastings  often,  in  cold  and  nakedness.  Besides  those 
things  that  are  without,  that  which  cometh  upon  me 
daily,  the  care  of  all  the  churches.  Who  is  weak, 
and  I  am  not  weak?  Who  is  made  to  stumble,  and  I 
burn  not?  If  I  must  needs  glory,  I  will  glory  in  the 
things  that  concern  my  weakness.  The  God  and 
Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  he  who  is  blessed 
forevermore,  knoweth  that  I  lie  not." 

A  chain  of  churches  marked  his  pathway,  and  in 
Csesar's  household  Christians  were  found  before  he 
died;  and  though  under  the  worst  of  emperors  his 
poor  body  was  led  to  martyrdom  out  along  the  Ostian 
way,  yet  within  three  hundred  years  a  successor  to 
that  emperor  became  himself  a  confessor  of  Christ ; 
and  along  the  mighty  roadways  of  Rome,  upon  which 
her  armies  had  marched  forth  to  war  and  had  re- 
turned in  triumph,  there  passed  many  and  many  a 
missionary  of  the  cross,  heralding  in  peace  the  name 
of  the  Prince  of  Peace. 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  177 

Other  missionaries  have  equaled  or  even  surpassed 
the  Apostle  Paul  in  special  directions,  but  not  one 
has  been  his  compeer  in  the  totality  of  his  sufferings 
and  achievements.  William  Carey  surpassed  him  as 
a  linguist;  perhaps  Adoniram  Judson  equaled  him  in 
physical  endurance  and  sufferings  for  Christ's  sake; 
David  Livingstone  was  a  heroic  sufferer  and  a  greater 
pioneer;  Henry  Martyn  reminds  us  of  him  in  the 
energy  and  intensity  of  his  movements,  and  the  per- 
manent impression  he  made  wherever  he  went;  in 
martyrdom  there  have  been  many  who  died  as  unwav- 
eringly as  he.  But  taken  for  all  in  all  it  is  the  judg- 
ment of  students  that  no  saint  has  equaled  him. 

"The  elements  were 
So  mixed  in  him,  that  Nature  might  stand  up, 
And  say  to  all  the  world.  This  was  a  man." 

As  a  pioneer  missionary,  building  "  not  on  other 
men's  foundations;"  as  a  *' wise  master  builder  of 
churches;  "  as  a  defender,  on  the  one  hand  of  the 
liberty  of  the  church  against  Judaizers,  and  on  the 
other  of  the  faith  of  the  church  against  philoso- 
phists ;  as  the  creator  of  a  literature  received  above 
all  others  as  unimpeachable  and  canonical;  as  dis- 
criminating with  absolute  nicety  between  the  essen- 
tial and  the  expedient  in-  Gospel  work  and  worship ; 
as  a  sympathizer  even  unto  tears  with  the  weeping, 
unto  joys  with  the  joyous,  and  unto  heart  burnings 
with  those  who  stumbled;  as  a  fearless  proclaimer  of 
the  cross  and  the  resurrection  of  Jesus;  as  a  tender 

12 


178  STUDIES    IN   ACTS 

and  pathetic  pleader  for  souls;  as  an  inspirer  of 
men;  as  a  distributer  of  alms;  and  finally,  as  a  ready 

and  triumphant  martyr,  he  stands  before  the  world 
as  its  accepted  foremost  saint.  And  standing  thus  in 
his  lonely  grandeur,  he  asks  us  to  forget  him  while 
we  behold  the  Christ  in  him,  calling  himself  the 
chief  of  sinners  while  we  behold  him  as  the  chief  of 
saints. 

His  epitaph  is  chiseled  by  his  own  hand,  not  in  mar- 
ble, but  upon  the  heart  of  the  world  wherever  Christ 
is  loved,  and  wherever  history  is  true  to  her  noblest 
treasures:  **I  have  fought  a  good  fight;  I  have  fin- 
ished my  course ;  I  have  kept  the  faith ;  henceforth 
there  is  laid  up  for  me  a  crown  of  righteousness, 
which  the  Lord,  the  righteous  Judge,  shall  give  to  me 
at  that  day;  and  not  to  me  only,  but  to  them  also 
that  love  his  appearing.'* 


IX. 
THE  FIRST  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  JOURNEY 


"How  easy  it  must  have  been  for  Jews  of  the  Diaspora,  who 
had  been  converted  when  visiting  Jerusalem  at  their  festivals,  to 
induce  some  of  them  (the  apostles)  to  carry  the  Gospel  to  their 
countrymen  outside;  or  other  members  of  the  primitive  Church 
might  in  their  commercial  travels  bear  the  Gospel  to  the  syna- 
gogues of  the  Diaspora.  But  this  spread  of  the  Gospel  was  entirely 
incidental,  and  the  Acts  are  right  in  representing  the  organised 
missionary  journey  of    Barnabas  and   Saul  as   an  epoch-making 

event."— PFeiss. 

180     ' 


IX. 

THE  FIRST  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  JOURNEY. 

"So  they  being  sent  forth  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  departed  unto 
Seleucia ;  and  from  thence  they  sailed  unto  Cyprus. '  ^—Acts  xiii.  4. 

It  was  a  dreadful  world  into  which  Barnabas  and 
Saul  were  sent.  In  many  a  passage,  but  especially  in 
the  first  chapter  of  his  letter  to  the  Romans,  the 
Apostle  Paul  has  set  the  brand  of  infamy  upon  it, 
and,  Cain-like,  it  must  bear  that  brand  forever.  An- 
cient paganism  was  a  sink  of  perdition  with  modern 
parallels  nowhere  except  among  modern  pagans  and 
idolaters.  Only  those  who  know  heathenism  in  the 
centers  of  its  influence  can  appreciate  the  apostle's 
terrible  arraignment  of  it.  Our  missionaries  who 
return  to  us  from  the  islands  of  the  Pacific,  and  from 
India  and  China  and  Africa,  and  from  lands  domin- 
ated by  the  grosser  forms  of  Roman  Catholicism, 
tell  us  that  we  know  nothing  of  the  spiritual  darkness 
that  broods  like  a  pall  over  the  very  temples  of 
idolatry;  of  the  social  distress  and  the  fearful  sins 
that  destroy  men's  lives  here  and  forever,  and  of  the 
thraldom  of  superstition  that  forbids  like  a  chaos  the 
entrance  of  order.  Buddha  and  Brahma  and  Con- 
fucius have  done  nothing  to  lift  their  peoples  above 
the  grossest  forms  of  idolatry,  and  the  physical  tor- 
tures   and    shockingly   obscene    rites    that    too   fre- 

181 


182  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

quently  accompany  idol  worship.  The  misguided 
devotees  of  Brahmanism  aud  Buddhism  and  fetish- 
ism have  been  led  to  the  cultivation  rather  than  the 
destruction  of  castes  and  class  distinctions  with  their 
inexpressible  hatreds  and  their  innumerable  cruelties; 
they  have  not  frowned  upon  polygamy  and  lechery 
and  base  tantric  forms  of  worship;  they  have  not 
forbidden  widow-burning  and  infanticide  and  human 
sacrifices;  they  have  enslaved  men;  they  have  de- 
graded women;  they  have  adored  cattle  and  mon- 
keys; they  have  worshiped  snakes  and  devils;  they 
have  neglected  the  poor,  the  sick,  and  the  insane, 
except  to  torture  them  with  exorcisms;  and  myriads 
upon  myriads  of  men  and  women  have  been  left  to 
corrupt  themselves  in  those  things  that  they  know 
naturally  as  brute  beasts. 

The  ancient  idolaters  and  the  modern  ones  are 
therefore  alike  described  by  Paul  when  he  says, 
*'Even  as  they  refused  to  have  Grod  in  their  knowl- 
edge, God  gave  them  up  to  a  reprobate  mind  to  do 
those  things  that  are  not  fitting;  being  filled  with  all 
unrighteousness,  wickedness,  covetousness,  mali- 
ciousness; full  of  envy,  murder,  strife,  deceit, 
malignity;  whisperers,  backbiters,  haters  of  God, 
insolent,  haughty,  boastful,  inventors  of  evil  things, 
disobedient  to  parents,  without  understanding,  cove- 
nant-breakers, without  natural  affection,  unmerciful; 
who,  knowing  the  ordinance  of  God,  that  they  that 
practice  such  things  are  worthy  of  death,  not  only  do 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS  183 

the  same,  but  also  consent  with  them  that  practice 
them." 

Farrar  suggests  that  Tarsus  itself,  the  birthplace  of 
Paul,  was,  because  of  its  paganism  and  its  pollutions, 
no  unfit  burial-place  for  Julian  the  Apostate.  *'The 
seat  of  a  celebrated  school  of  letters,"  he  says,  "it 
was  at  the  same  time  the  metropolis  of  a  province  so 
low  that  it  was  counted  among  the  three  most  vil- 
lainous k's  of  antiquity,  Kappadokia,  Kilikia  and 
Krete.  What  religion  there  was  at  this  period  had 
chiefly  assumed  an  orgiastic  and  oriental  character, 
and  the  popular  faith  of  many  even  in  Kome  was  a 
strange  mixture  of  Greek,  Roman,  Egyptian,  Phry- 
gian, Phoenician  and  Jewish  elements.  The  wild 
fanatical  enthusiasms  of  the  Eastern  cults  shook  with 
new  sensations  of  mad  sensuality  and  weird  super- 
stition the  feeble  and  jaded  despair  of  Aryan  pagan- 
ism. The  Tarsian  idolatry  was  composed  of  these 
mingled  elements.     .     .     . 

*'The  traditional  founder  of  the  city  was  the 
Assyrian,  Sardanapalus,  whose  semi-historic  exist- 
ence was  confused,  in  the  then  syncretism  of  pagan 
worship,  with  various  representatives  of  the  sun- 
god — the  Asiatic  Sandan,  the  Phoenician  Baal  and  the 
Grecian  Hercules.  The  gross  allusiveness  and  origin 
of  this  worship,  its  connection  with  the  very  types 
and  ideals  of  luxurious  effeminacy,  unbounded  glut- 
tony and  brutal  license,  were  quite  sufficient  to  awake 
the  indignant  loathing  of  each  true-hearted  Jew. 
And  these   revolts   of  natural  antipathy  must    have 


184  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

been  intensified  with  patriotic  disgust  in  the  hearts  of 
a  people  in  whom  true  religion  has  ever  been  united 
with  personal  purity  when  they  saw  that  at  the  main 
festival  of  this  degraded  cult  the  effeminate  Sardan- 
apalus  and  masculine  Semiramis,  each  equally  detest- 
able, were  worshiped  with  rites  which  externally 
resembled  the  pure  and  thankful  rejoicings  of  the 
Feast  of  Tabernacles.  St.  Paul  must  have  witnessed 
this  festival.  He  must  have  seen  at  Anchiale  the 
most  defiant  symbol  of  cynical  contentment  with  all 
which  is  merely  animal  in  the  statue  of  Sardan- 
apalus,  represented  as  snapping  his  fingers  while 
he  uttered  the  sentiment  engraved  upon  the  pedestal, 

'Eat,  drink,  and  enjoy  thyself,  the  rest  is  nothing.'  " 

Godet  says  that  the  Apostle  Paul's  picture  of  the 
unnatural  vices  prevalent  in  Gentile  society  is  con- 
firmed "in  all  points  by  the  frightful  details  con- 
tained in  the  works  of  Greek  and  Latin  writers." 

Macaulay  has  left  us,  in  his  *' Fragments  of  a 
Roman  Tale,"  a  description  of  the  utter  moral  laxity 
among  the  noble  Romans  in  the  days  of  Caisar  and 
Cicero.  Revelry,  gambling,  conspiracy,  lewdness, 
brawls  and  assassinations  filled  the  minds  and  occu- 
pied the  time  of  an  aristocracy  rendered  inordinately 
brutal  by  wars  and  inordinately  rich  by  conquests. 

If  anything  were  wanting  as  an  evidence  of  the 
coarse  cruelty  and  inhuman  abandonment  of  the 
times  it  would  be  abundantly  supplied  by  the  barest 
description  of  the  amphitheaters,  and  of  the  bloody 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS  185 

plays  demanded  by  the  people  and  furnished  by  their 
rulers.  More  and  more  the  old  martial  spirit,  culti- 
vated by  generations  of  warfare,  took  to  gloating 
itself  upon  scenes  of  bloodshed  deliberately  planned 
and  executed  for  the  Roman  holidays.  The  crimes 
of  Nero  and  Caligula  did  not  prevent  them  from 
standing  well  with  the  people  so  long  as  they  were 
able  to  furnish  bread  and  games  for  the  unemployed, 
and  that  class  included  nearly  the  whole  of  the  popu- 
lation minus  the  slaves,  who  did  the  work,  and  of 
whom  there  were  sixty  millions  in  the  empire.  In 
the  time  of  the  republic  sixty-six  days  in  the  year 
were  given  up  to  shows;  during  the  empire,  a  hun- 
dred and  seventy-three.  The  expenses  were  enor- 
mous, sometimes  reaching  as  niuch  as  $75,000.00  on  a 
single  performance.  *'In  the  year  80  A.  D.,  Titus 
gave  a  show  that  lasted  a  hundred  days,  and  exhib- 
ited in  one  day  five  thousand  wild  animals."  In  the 
games  at  Berytus  he  compelled  thousands  of  Jews  to 
fight  and  die.  As  if  to  color  the  degradation  and 
cruelty  of  the  age  by  an  unintentional  sarcasm,  this 
emperor  was  seriously  called  "the  darling  of  the 
human  race."  Trajan  (98  to  117  A.  D.)  gave  a  show 
that  lasted  four  months,  in  which  he  exhibited  ten 
thousand  men  and  eleven  thousand  wild  beasts. 
Claudius  (41  to  54  A.  D.)  entertained  Rome  with  a 
sham  sea  fight  in  which  nineteen  thousand  men  were 
engaged.  Augustus,  who  was  emperor  when  Christ 
was  born,  testified  in  a  codicil  to  his  will  that  he  had 
exhibited  eight  thousand   men   and    three  thousand 


186  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

five  hundred  and  ten  wild  beasts.  At  a  comic  per- 
formance dwarfs  were  set  to  fighting  dwarfs,  and 
every  expedient  was  tried  and  no  cruelty  shunned  to 
bring  out  new  sensations.  *' Prisoners  would  appear 
on  the  stage  in  gorgeous  clothes,  from  which  sud- 
denly flames  would  burst  forth  and  consume  them. 
Ixion  was  seen  on  his  wheel.  Mucins  Scaevola  was 
seen  to  put  his  hand  into  a  coal  fire  and  keep  it  there 
till  it  was  burned  off.  Orpheus  was  presented  with 
his  harp  amid  a  smiling  nature,  to  all  appearances 
charmed  with  his  music.  When  the  spectators  began 
to  grow  weary  with  the  show  a  wild  beast  would  rush 
out  from  the  foliage  and  tear  him  to  pieces  amid  the 
laughter  of  the  public." 

When  a  victim  was  down  and  put  up  his  hand 
pleading  for  his  life  he  might  be  spared  if  the  people 
put  up  their  fingers;  but  he  must  be  finished  if  they 
turned  down  their  thumbs.  The  women  who 
thronged  the  amphitheaters  were  usually  quick  to 
say  by  the  latter  sign,  *'Do  him  to  death."  Once 
when  food  was  scarce  for  the  beasts  in  the  menagerie 
Caligula  proposed  to  feed  them  on  criminals.  If  a 
gladiator  showed  fear  he  was  prodded  forward  into 
the  battle  with  hot  irons. 

The  emperors  while  thus  engaged  in  slaughtering 
beasts  and  murdering  men  for  the  amusement  of  the 
people,  were  prone  to  dote  upon  mistresses  and  race 
horses.  Caligula  had  a  horse  that  he  fed  from  a 
marble  manger,  sometimes,  however,  inviting  him 
to   his   own   table,  and   dining  him  on  almonds  and 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS  187 

raisins.  The  licentiousness  and  trifling  of  the  empe- 
rors were  in  turn  imitated  by  the  people,  and  found 
public  expression  in  shows  that  were  as  shameful  as 
those  above  described  were  cruel.  Charles  Loring 
Brace  tells  us  in  a  significant  paragraph  that  *'the 
extremes  to  which  licentious  shows  were  carried  can 
not  even  be  explained  in  modern  writings."  He 
says,  "In  fact,  few  classical  scholars  who  have  not 
waded  through  the  disgusting  mire  of  a  large  part  of 
Roman  literature,  can  have  any  idea  of  the  depth  of 
obscenity  and  immorality  which  it  reached.  Athen- 
seus,  Petronius,  Apuleius  (in  his  lighter  works), 
Juvenal,  and  many  others,  only  show  how  debased 
even  genius  and  talent  may  become  under  such  influ- 
ences as  so  much  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  religions 
furnished.  Even  the  universal  suffering  and  ruin  of 
the  Roman  Empire  had  no  influence  on  the  public 
appetite  for  these  enjoyments.  In  Salvian's  bitter 
epigram,  the  empire  ridtt  et  tnoritur^  laughs  while 
dying." 

Again  he  says,  speaking  of  the  same  and  other 
writers:  *'  It  is  not  that,  like  Juvenal,  they  pick  out 
extreme  immoralities  for  a  biting  sarcasm ;  but  they 
allude  casually  and  without  shame  to  excesses  and 
habitual  vices  whose  very  name  is  lost  to  modern 
ears.  Even  Cicero  says  soberly  that  it  was  held  a 
disgrace  among  the  Greeks  not  to  indulge  in  unnat- 
ural vices.  He  did  not  say  that  his  own  countrymen 
fell  even  lower." 

Such  was  the  ''heartless  cruelty,  the  unfathomable 


188  STUDIES    IN   ACTS 

corruption,"  and  the  disgusting  frivolity  of  the  peo- 
ples for  whom  the  philosophy  of  Socrates,  the  morals 
of  Seneca,  and  the  politics  of  Caesar  had  done  their 
utmost.  Slaves  that  were  not  wanted  were  slain; 
wives  that  were  not  wanted  were  divorced ;  children 
that  were  not  wanted  were  abandoned.  By  and  by 
emperors  that  were  not  wanted  were  assassinated, 
and  the  soldiers  put  the  empire  up  for  sale  to  the 
highest  bidder.  That  was  the  style  of  world  pro- 
duced by  the  boasted  arts  of  Greece,  the  laws  of 
Rome,  and  the  swords  of  the  Caesars. 

However,  the  very  failure  of  philosophy  and  art 
and  idolatry  and  legislation  and  conquest,  in  short,  of 
the  forces  at  work  in  the  ancient  world,  to  produce 
happiness  and  purity  and  permanence  must  be  looked 
upon  as  a  negative  preparation  for  the  coming  of 
Christ.  By  doing  its  utmost,  and  by  failing  in  its 
utmost,  humanity  learned  to  despair  of  itself.  It 
proved  **  adequately  and  magnificently  both  that  it 
could  not  save  itself,  and  how  splendidly  worth 
saving  it  was." 

"Eternal  hopes  are  man's, 
Which  when  tljey  should  mainuain  themselves  aloft 
Want  due  consistence;  like  a  pillar  of  smoke, 
That  with  majestic  energy  from  earth 
Rises,  but,  having  reached  the  thinner  air, 
Melts  and  dissolves,  and  is  no  longer  seen." 

A  true  estimate  of  the  preparation  in  history  for 
Christ  and  his  message  cannot  fail  to  include  the 
facts  of  Greek  civilization  and  Roman  government. 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  189 

The  above  was  a  negative  preparation,  but  these  were 
positive.  More  marvelous  than  the  conquests  of 
Alexander  were  the  permanent  results  that  he  left 
behind  him.  The  historian  Arnold,  as  quoted  by 
Creasy,  says:  *' Asia  beheld  with  astonishment  and 
awe  the  uninterrupted  progress  of  a  hero,  the  sweep 
of  whose  conquests  was  as  wide  and  rapid  as  that  of 
her  own  barbaric  kings,  or  of  the  Scythian  or  Chal- 
dean hordes;  but,  far  unlike  the  whirlwinds  of 
Asiatic  warfare,  the  advance  of  the  Macedonian 
leader  was  no  less  deliberate  than  rapid.  At  every 
step  the  Greek  power  took  root,  and  the  language 
and  the  civilization  of  Greece  were  planted  from  the 
shores  of  the  ^gean  to  the  banks  of  the  Indus,  from 
the  Caspian  and  the  great  Hyrcauian  plain  to  the 
cataracts  of  the  Nile;  to  exist  actually  for  nearly  a 
thousand  years,  and  in  their  influence  to  endure  for- 
ever." 

Creasy,  in  his  "Fifteen  Decisive  Battles  of  the 
World,"  says:  *' Within  thirty  years  after  Alexan- 
der crossed  the  Hellespont  the  Greek  language  was 
spoken  in  every  country  from  the  shores  of  the 
^gean  to  the  Indus,  and  also  throughout  Egypt — 
not  indeed  wholly  to  the  extirpation  of  the  native 
dialects,  but  it  became  the  language  of  every  court, 
of  all  literature,  of  every  judicial  and  political  func- 
tion, and  formed  a  medium  of  communication  among 
the  many  myriads  of  mankind  inhabiting  those  large 
portions  of  the  Old  World." 

Rome  conquered  where  Greece  had  conquered,  but 


190  STUDIES    IN    ACTS 

she  did  not  drive  out  the  language  and  the  influence 
of  Greece.  To  her  was  committed  the  mission  of 
legislation  and  centralization.  With  imperial  reck- 
lessness of  cost  she  bridged  rivers  and  tunneled 
mountains  and  paved  her  roadways  to  the  limits  of 
her  domains.  Over  these  she  sent  out  her  armies  to 
garrison  and  hold,  or  to  invade  and  conquer,  and 
through  her  armies  she  impressed  her  imperious  will 
upon  the  world  at  her  feet,  bringing  at  least  political 
order  out  of  what  had  previously  been  a  chaos. 
Augustus,  through  his  long  and  peaceful  reign,  held 
the  provinces  of  the  empire  as  in  a  leash,  imposing 
laws  upon  the  conquered  nations  as  effectually  as  the 
Greeks  had  imposed  their  language. 

When  these  two  facts  are  placed  together  there  is 
furnished  the  explanation  of  the  following  thought- 
ful paragraph:  *' Follow  St.  Paul  and  see  his  cir- 
cuits ;  watch  him  claiming  the  safeguard  of  the  same 
Roman  citizenship  in  the  Macedonian  town  and  the 
capital  of  Palestine,  laying  hold  at  Csesarea  on  the 
horns  of  a  central  tribunal  at  Kome,  borne  thither  by 
the  sails  of  the  carrying  trade  in  the  *  ship  of  Alexan- 
dria,' meditating  a  journey  into  Spain,  numbering 
among  his  Roman  converts,  as  seems  probable,  one 
who  had  a  direct  connection  with  Roman  Britain, 
writing  in  the  same  Greek  to  Rome  and  to  the  high- 
landers  of  Galatia,  never  crossed  in  his  journeys  by 
any  track  of  war,  never  stopped  by  challenge  of 
frontier  or  custom  house ;  these  are  so  many  object 
lessons  to   show  what  the  '  Pax  Romana '   and   the 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS  191 

Rdman  unity  of  power  and  organization  imported  for 
the  growth  of  a  world-religion." 

History,  the  most  accurate  and  truly  philosophical, 
is  the  best  commentary  on  the  Apostle  Paul's  pro- 
found observation,  "When  the  fullness  of  time  was 
come,  God  sent  forth  his  Son."  It  was  in  the  same 
opportune  time  that  the  apostle  himself  and  his 
fellow-workers  were  sent  forth,  a  time  marked  by 
religious  perversion  and  moral  decay  on  the  one 
hand,  by  unity  of  Greek  culture  and  Roman  domin- 
ion on  the  other. 

Into  that  world,  therefore,  though  all  too  briefly 
and  inadequately  described,  Barnabas  and  Paul  were 
sent  forth.  It  was  an  enterprise  full  of  the  beauty  of 
holiness  and  the  sublimity  of  faith.  When  nations 
set  themselves  against  nations,  it  is  with  the  bar- 
barous splendor  of  thousands  upon  thousands  of 
armed  men ;  but  when  the  Lord  sets  himself  against  a 
world  in  wickedness,  it  is  in  the  persons  thus  of  two 
lonely  men,  without  sword  or  shield,  and  armed  only 
with  the  story  upon  their  lips  of  a  third  Man  who  had 
died  on  a  Roman  cross,  "whom  they  affirmed  to  be 
alive."  There  is  the  more  than  martial  tread  of  a 
divine  heroism  through  the  whole  history  of  missions. 
The  missionary  walks  by  faith,  not  by  sight,  and  as 
his  commission  is  divine,  so  his  victory  is  preassured. 

Setting  sail  from  Seleucia,  Barnabas  and  Saul  must 
have  felt  that  they  were  consecrating  their  little 
merchant  ship  to  new  uses,  and  that  her  white  sails 
were  made  by  their  mission  the  wings  of  peace  and 


192  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

love  and  forgiveness.  The  Mediterranean  Sea  was 
called,  from  its  commercial  importance,  *'The  Mar- 
riage King  of  Nations."  Through  the  work  of  these 
missionaries  it  was  destined  to  become,  within  little 
more  than  a  generation,  the  marriage  ring  of 
churches  of  the  redeemed. 

The  chief  incidents  of  this  first  missionary  journey 
are  the  conversion  of  Sergius  Paulus,  the  preaching 
and  persecution  in  Pisidian  Antioch,  the  preach- 
ing and  persecution  in  Iconium,  the  preaching  and 
persecution  in  Lystra,  and  the  preaching  in  Derbe; 
then  upon  the  return  journey,  the  confirming  of  the 
churches,  and  the  ordaining  of  elders  in  each  of 
them. 

Sergius  Paulus,  the  proconsul  of  the  island  of 
Cyprus,  is  described  as  "a  prudent  man,  who  called 
for  Barnabas  and  Saul  and  desired  to  hear  the  word 
of  God."  At  the  same  time  he  was  keeping  with 
him  Elymas  the  sorcerer,  a  false  prophet,  a  renegade 
Jew,  calling  himself  Bar-jesus.  Judged  by  his  equals 
and  superiors  in  Roman  society,  Sergius  Paulus  was 
not  censurable  for  keeping  his  household  prophet, 
though  of  such  a  character.  Through  all  ages  those 
who  have  been  devoid  of  the  knowledge  of  the  true 
God  and  of  trust  in  him,  have  been  the  victims  of 
false  prophets,  magicians,  sorcerers,  wizards,  witches, 
astrologers,  sibyllists,  augurs,  casters  of  horoscopes, 
dream  interpreters,  spiritualistic  mediums,  strolling 
fortune-tellers,  mahatmas,  or  some  such  quack  mira- 
cle venders.     Pharaoh  had  his  magicians;  Nebuchad- 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  193 

nezzar,  his  astrologers;  Saul,  when  he  had  lost  God, 
sought  the  witch  of  Endor,  and  there  were  scarceh^ 
any  of  the  heroes  of  Greece  or  the  rulers  of  Rome 
who  were  not  in  some  way  or  other  the  patrons 
of  Delphic  oracles,  or  Pythian  priestesses,  or  dream- 
ers, or  prognosticators,  or  ventriloquists,  or  deceivers 
of  some  sort.  *' There  was  scarcely  a  Roman  family 
that  did  not  keep  or  consult  its  own  fortune-teller, 
and  Juvenal  describes  the  Emperor  Tiberias  as 
seated  with  a  herd  of  Chaldeans  on  his  rock  at 
Capri."  The  emperors  Nero  and  Vespasian  and 
Domitian,  all  of  whom  persecuted  Christians,  enter- 
tained each  a  superstitious  regard  for  his  pet  sor- 
cerers. 

Naturally,  this  household  sorcerer  withstood  Bar- 
nabas and  Saul,  seeking  to  turn  away  the  proconsul 
from  the  faith.  Strangely  enough,  such  abnormal 
people  are  the  first  to  recognize  the  man  with  a  holy 
mission,  and  to  confess  him.  The  demonized  man 
in  the  synagogue  at  Capernaum  was  the  first  to  con- 
fess Christ,  saying,  "Let  us  alone;  what  have  we  to 
do  with  thee,  thou  Jesus  of  Nazareth?  I  know  thee 
who  thou  art,  the  Holy  One  of  God."  The  instincts 
of  fear  are  supernatu rally  quick,  and  in  such  matters 
they  are  inerrant.  At  St.  Paul's  rebuke  Elymas  was 
smitten  with  blindness,  and  Sergius  Paulus  became  a 
believer,  *' being  astonished  at  the  doctrine  of  the 
Lord." 

It  was  probably  in  the  year  47  that  the  rulers  and 
elders  in  the  synagogue  in  Pisidian  Antioch  noticed 

13 


194  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

two  strangers  seated  among  the  worshipers  there,  and 
sent  to  them,  saying  (in  a  way  that  seems  to  us 
delightfully  antique  and  fraternal),  "Ye  men  and 
brethren,  if  ye  have  any  word  of  exhortation  for  the 
people,  say  on."  They  little  dreamed  of  the  storm 
'they  were  inviting.  Led  by  this  invitation,  the  Apos- 
tle Paul  "stood  up,  and  beckoning  with  the  hand, 
said,  Men  of  Israel,  and  ye  that  fear  God,  give  audi- 
ence." Thereu^Don  he  delivered  a  sermon  (xiii.  17- 
41),  the  outlines  of  which  may  be  clearly  traced  in 
that  of  the  martyr  Stephen.  There  is  the  same  his- 
toric background,  there  is  a  similar  use  of  prophecy, 
there  is  the  declaration  of  the  Messiahship  of  Jesus, 
and  in  both  there  is  the  same  fearful  warning  against 
the  rejection  of  Jesus,  enforced  by  the  mournful  his- 
toric rejection  of  the  prophets  of  Israel  by  the 
fathers  of  Israel.  Stephen's  sermon  was  not  lost 
upon  the  young  man  who  held  the  clothes  of  his  mur- 
derers, and  in  the  providence  of  God  Paul  the  apos- 
tle is  more  than  a  compensation  for  Stephen  the 
martyr.  This  sermon  was  the  honest  and  daring  con- 
fession of  a  mistaken  man.  Ten  years  before,  possi- 
bly fourteen,  Paul  had  sanctioned  the  murder  of 
Stephen  for  preaching  that  sermon,  but  he  could  not 
murder  the  sermon.  It  lived  in  his  soul,  and  lived 
the  more  vitally  there  since  it  was  eloquent  with  a 
brother's  blood,  still  "crying  to  him  from  the  ground." 
He  must  have  pondered  over  that  sermon,  and  prayed 
and  wept  over  it.  And  now,  having  nurtured  it 
in  his  soul  with  prayers  and  tears  and  meditations. 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS  195 

the  opportune  time  has  come  for  its  delivery,  and  he 
will  preach  it,  though  he,  too,  must  put  his  life  in 
jeopardy  for  it.  No  wonder  that  nearly  the  whole 
city  should  be  roused  by  such  a  preparation  and 
delivery  of  sermons.  They  were  not  able  to  resist 
the  wisdom  and  spirit  with  which  this  new  Stephen 
spake. 

But  the  Apostle  Paul,  in  this  Antioch  sermon, 
makes  two  noteworthy  advances  upon  Stephen.  The 
latter  was  cut  off  before  he  could  declare  the  resur- 
rection of  Jesus;  Paul  declares  it  fully.  Probably 
Stephen  would  not  have  declared  the  insufficiency  of 
the  law  of  Moses  as  contrasted  with  the  all-sufficiency 
of  the  Gospel.  This  Paul  does  in  the  following 
words,  v/hich  are  the  first  statement  of  a  position 
that  he  was  afterward  to  maintain  and  defend  by 
much  reasoning  and  under  many  persecutions. 

*'  Be  it  known  unto  you,  therefore,  men  and  breth- 
ren, that  through  this  man  is  preached  unto  you  the 
forgiveness  of  sins ;  and  by  him  all  that  believe  are 
justified  from  all  things  from  which  they  could  not  be 
justified  by  the  law  of  Moses." 

Meyer  suggests  that  this  is  but  the  major  premise 
of  the  proposition;  that  the  minor  premise,  namely, 
by  the  law  of  Moses  there  can  be  no  justification,  is 
prudently  left  to  be  inferred.  This  doctrine  of  justi- 
fication by  faith,  with  its  antithesis,  no  justification 
by  law,  is  in  reality  but  another  voicing  of  the 
soteriology  preached  by  the  Apostle  Peter  on  the  day 
of  Pentecost.     In  his  answer  to  inquiring  believers. 


196  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

"Repent  and  be  baptized,  every  one  of  you  in  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ,  for  the  remission  of  sins," 
there  is  implied  the  same  antithesis  as  regards  the 
law.  He,  too,  leaves  a  minor  premise  prudently 
unexpressed.  But  this  minor  premise  of  salvation, 
namely,  freedom  from  the  law  of  works  with  its  im- 
plied meritoriousness,  prudently  unexpressed  on  the 
day  of  Pentecost,  and  now  but  half  expressed  by  the 
Apostle  Paul,  was  destined  to  become  the  one  great 
root  of  bitterness  in  the  Apostolic  Church.  And 
again,  after  fifteen  hundred  years  of  church  history, 
mostly  mournful,  the  Apostle  Paul's  major  and 
minor  premises  of  salvation  were  destined  to  become 
the  logic  of  liberty  from  the  bondage  of  Eoman 
Catholicism.  There  are  striking  parallels  on  the 
one  hand  between  the  Jewish  church  of  the  first 
century  and  the  Romish  church  of  the  sixteenth,  and 
on  the  other,  between  Paul  the  emancipator  from  the 
one  and  Luther  the  emancipator  from  the  other. 
The  beginnings  of  history  are  hidden  in  the  souls  of 
the  heroes  of  history.  When  Saul  of  Tarsus  cried  out, 
"Lord,  what  wilt  thou  have  me  to  do?"  there,  in  his 
expressed  heart-loyalty  to  the  Lordship  of  Jesus,  was 
the  beginning  of  more  than  a  biography.  When 
Martin  Luther  was  ascending  Pilate's  staircase  in 
Rome  upon  his  knees,  counting  beads,  rosary  in 
hand,  with  the  promise  of  absolution  awaiting  him 
on  the  top  stair,  there  came  to  his  mind  the  text, 
"The  just  shall  live  by  faith."  He  arose  and  fled  in 
shame  and  humiliation  from  the  place,  and  that  was 


STUDIES   m   ACTS  197 

the  beginning  of  the  Reformation.  The  theses 
against  indulgences  were  a  consequence  of  the  in- 
spiration born  in  that  supreme  moment.  It  is  true 
that  Luther  himself  says  of  the  theses,  "  In  fourteen 
days  they  ran  clear  through  all  Germany,  for  all  the 
world  was  complaining  about  the  indulgences;  and 
because  all  the  bishops  and  doctors  were  silent,  and 
nobody  was  willing  to  bell  the  cat,  Luther  became  a 
renowned  doctor,  because  at  last  somebody  took  hold 
of  the  thing."  But  it  was  Paul's  sermon  in  Antioch 
with  a  German  gloss  upon  it,  suiting  it  to  the  times, 
that  ran  through  all  Germany  in  fourteen  days,  and 
has  not  ceased  running  through  all  true  Protestant- 
ism in  opposition  to  the  meritoriousness  of  Phari- 
seeism  and  Roman  Catholicism,  and  in  short  all 
forms  of  idolatry  and  paganism. 

The  results  of  the  preaching  in  Antioch  were  the 
rejection  of  the  Gospel  by  the  Jews,  "  contradicting 
and  blaspheming;  "  in  consequence,  the  declaration 
of  a  special  mission  to  the  Gentiles;  thereupon  the 
conversion  of  as  many  as  were  disposed  to  eternal 
life  (Variorum  Bible,  Variorum  rendering),  accom- 
panied with  joy  and  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

Many  times  in  Luke's  history  the  marvels  of  Paul's 
mission  are  left  enshrined  in  few  and  simple  words. 
We  are  told  for  instance  (xiv.  1)  that  Paul  and  Bar- 
nabas went  into  the  synagogue  of  Iconium  and  so 
spake  that  "  a  great  multitude  both  of  the  Jews  and 
also  of  the  Greeks  believed."  Later  we  are  told, 
quite  incidentally,  as  it  would  seem  (vs.  21-24),  that  a 


198  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

church  was  organized  in  that  city,  and  that  elders  or 
bishops  were  appointed  over  it.  All  this  is  written 
down  with  no  expressions  of  astonishment.  It  seems 
that  the  faith  of  the  ancient  Christians  was  such  that 
they  were  no  more  surprised  at  conversions  and  the 
organization  of  churches,  even  in  those  densely  pagan 
lands,  than  we  are  at  the  growing  trees  and  the  fruits 
in  an  orchard.  When  Christ  was  presented  the  cause 
was  there ;  the  effects  were  a  matter  of  consequence. 

In  Iconium,  however,  persecutions  arose,  they,  too, 
being  a  matter  of  consequence,  and  written  down 
with  equal  calmness.  Having  tarried  '*  a  long  time  " 
in  that  city,  the  apostles  finally,  when  an  assault  was 
made,  fled  to  Lystra  and  Derbe,  cities  far  in  the 
interior  of  Lycaonia,  or  Wolf-land. 

In  Lystra  the  Apostle  Paul  wrought  the  miracle 
of  healing  upon  the  lame  man.  He  and  Barnabas 
were  immediately  taken  by  the  shallow  and  impul- 
sive idolaters  of  the  city  for  their  tutelar  deities; 
Barnabas  for  Jupiter,  he  no  doubt  making  the  bet- 
ter personal  appearance;  and  Paul  for  Mercurius,  he 
being  the  chief  speaker,  and  apparently  the  servant 
of  Barnabas,  the  greater  god.  Oxen  and  garlands 
were  brought  to  the  door  of  the  house  where  they 
were  staying,  and  they  would  have  been  worshiped 
with  a  sacrifice,  had  they  not  rebuked  the  people 
with  every  demonstration  of  disapproval  and  horror, 
rending  their  clothes,  and  running  in  among  them, 
declaring  themselves  as  "  men  of  like  passions,"  and 
preaching  to  them  the  vanities   of  idolatry,  and  the 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  199 

claims  of  the  true  God  *'  who  made  heaven,  and 
earth,  and  the  sea,  and  all  that  are  therein."  The 
fickle  people  were  restrained  from  worshiping  them, 
but  now,  being  disillusioned,  they  were  open  to  the 
advances  of  Paul's  enemies.  Persuaded  by  "  certain 
Jews  who  came  from  Antioch  and  Iconium,"  they 
who  yesterday  would  have  worshiped  Paul,  to-day 
stone  him  and  leave  him  for  dead.  *'  The  missionary 
of  the  cross,"  it  has  been  said,  "  is  absolutely  im- 
mortal till  his  work  is  done."  As  Christ  viewed  itj 
as  the  Holy  Spirit  viewed  it,  Paul's  work  was  not 
done,  and  he  was  not  dead.  While  they  stood  round 
him,  he  rose  up,  and  presently  he  went  with  them 
into  the  city.  The  next  day  he  and  Barnabas  went 
to  Derbe,  where  they  made  many  disciples  (Vario- 
rum Bible),  and  from  which  they  returned  by  the  way 
of  Lystra,  and  Iconium,  and  Antioch,  "  confirming 
the  souls  of  the  disciples,  and  exhorting  them  to 
continue  in  the  faith,  and  that  we  must  through 
much  tribulation  enter  into  the  kingdom  of   God." 

Verse  twenty-three  of  chapter  fourteen,  should  be 
noted  for  its  bearing  upon  the  primary  steps  in  the 
organization  of  the  Pauline  churches.  A  plurality  of 
''elders"  or  *' bishops  "  (xx.  28;  Titus  i.  5  and  7), 
was  '*  ordained  "  or  "  elected  "  (Variorum  rendering) 
in  every  city. 

Were  these  apostles  heroes?  They  went  directly 
back  to  the  cities  in  which  they  had  been  persecuted 
and  stoned.  They  went  customarily  into  the  syna- 
gogues of  their  brethren  by  blood,  and  preached  doc- 


200  STUDIES    IN   ACTS 

trines  that  they  knew  to  be  revolutionary  and  unpal- 
atable; they  hazarded  their  lives  in  the  defense  of 
their  faith,  and  in  the  confirmation  of  their  newly- 
baptized  brethren.  Admiration  for  their  noble  ten- 
acity of  purpose,  the  solicitude  of  their  watch-care, 
and  the  tenderness  of  their  love,  cannot  be  kept 
within  small  bounds. 

Having  returned  to  their  home  church  in  Antioch, 
they  gave  a  missionary  rehearsal,  the  first  of  which 
we  have  any  record,  unless  it  be  that  of  the  Apostle 
Peter  upon  his  return  from  the  home  of  Cornelius. 
In  sending  out  her  chiefest  teachers  as  missionaries, 
the  Antioch  Church  proved  her  apostolicity.  In 
gathering  together  to  hear  from  her  missionaries  *'  all 
that  God  had  done,"  and  *'  how  he  had  opened  the 
door  of  faith  unto  the  Gentiles,"  she  proved  by  her 
interest  that  her  spirit  was  the  spirit  of  Him  who 
died  for  all  men.  And  still,  as  of  old,  the  church  that 
is  truly  apostolic  speeds  away  the  representatives  of 
Christ  and  herself  to  far-off  lands,  and  welcomes 
also  her  returning  missionaries,  and  hears  with 
joy  the  story  of  their  achievements.  Forever  and 
forever,  the  church  that  intelligently  and  truthfully 
calls  herself  apostolic  must  hear  and  heed  the  com- 
mand, *'  Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the 
Gospel."  And  forever,  except  for  such  obedience, 
the  true  church  must  realize  the  blasphemy  of  claim- 
ing the  promise,  **  Lo,  I  am  with  you  always." 


THE  FIRST  CHURCH   COUNCIL 


"This  little  picture  marks  the  beginning  of  Christian  liberty. 
A  wrong  step  here,  and  Christian  liberty  would  have  been  lost. 
Paul  was  raised  up  at  the  very  moment  of  time.  He  who  made 
havoc  of  the  church  kept  it  together;  it  was  an  arm  terrific; — 
whether  to  strike  or  to  build  its  energy  was  superhuman.  Paul 
enlightened  the  whole  church — even  James  himself  became  almost 
a  poet  under  the  inspiration  of  this  new  voice.  "—Jbsep?i  Parker. 

202 


THE  FIRST   CHRUCH  COUNCIL. 

"The  apostles  and  elders  and  brethren  (in  other  words,  the  whole 
church,  see  verse  22)  send  greeting  unto  the  brethren  who  are  of  the 
Gentiles  in  Antioch  and  Syria  and  Cilicia ;  Forasmuch  as  we  have 
learned  that  certain  who  went  out  from  us  have  troubled  you  with 
words,  subverting  your  souls ;  to  whom  we  gave  no  such  command- 
ment ;  it  seemed  good  unto  us,  having  come  to  one  accord,  to 
choose  out  men  and  send  unto  you,  with  our  beloved  Barnabas  and 
Paul,  men  that  have  hazarded  their  lives  for  the  name  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  We  have  sent,  therefore,  Judas  and  Silas,  who  them- 
selves also  shall  tell  you  the  same  things  by  word  of  mouth.  For  it 
seemed  good  to  the  Holy  Spirit  and  to  us  to  lay  upon  you  no 
greater  burden  than  these  necessary  things:  that  ye  abstain  from 
things  sacrificed  to  idols,  and  from  blood,  and  from  things  stran- 
gled, and  from  fornication ;  from  which  if  ye  keep  yourselves,  it 
shall  be  well  with  you.    Fare  ye  well." — Acts  xv.  23-29. 

Neander  calls  this  the  first  public  document  of 
the  Christian  church.  It  is  the  expression  of  a  vic- 
tory and  a  compromise.  To  appreciate  the  victory 
it  is  necessary  to  rememher  that  there  was  a  party 
of  the  circumcision,  Judaizers,  Pharisee  saints,  in 
the  Jerusalem  church.  When  the  Apostle  Peter 
returned  from  Csesarea  after  the  conversion  of  Cor- 
nelius, "They  that  were  of  the  circumcision  con- 
tended with  him,  saying.  Thou  wentest  in  to  men 
uncircumcised  and  didst  eat  with  them."  This 
phrase,  "They  that  were  of  the  circumcision,"  is 
Luke's    gentle   designation    of     the   party.     Ail   the 

203 


204  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

members  of  the  Jerusalem  church  were  circumcised, 
but  they  were  not  all  champions  of  circumcision  as  a 
condition  of  salvation.  For  the  time  being  these  par- 
tisans were  silenced  by  Peter's  statement  of  the  case, 
and  especially  by  his  argument  based  upon  the  fact 
that  the  Holy  Spirit  had  been  given  to  Cornelius  and 
his  household.  But  they  were  the  professional  heresy- 
hunters  of  the  church,  and,  like  all  such  characters, 
they  evidently  felt  that  to  them  was  committed  the 
keeping  of  the  faith,  and  that  they  must  **  contend 
earnestly  for  it."  They  were  silenced,  but  only  for  a 
season.  Biding  their  time,  they  at  last  hit  upon  the 
supreme  opportunity  for  mischief-making  in  the  Gen- 
tile church  in  Antioch.  They  went  down,  presumably 
with  authority  from  the  apostles,  and  said,  **  Except 
ye  be  circumcised,  after  the  manner  of  Moses,  ye 
cannot  be  saved"  (xv.  1). 

It  was  a  square  issue,  for  Paul  and  Barnabas  had 
been  teaching  otherwise.  Was  Christianity  to  be  the 
religion  of  mankind,  or  was  it  to  settle  back  into  an 
ethnic  cult,  a  scarcely  improved  form  of  Mosaism,  a 
new  patch  on  the  old  garment,  with  "rents  made 
worse?"  It  was  the  old,  old  question  that  we  have 
constantly  to  face,  the  question  between  men  of 
the  letter  and  men  of  the  spirit;  the  question  be- 
tween stagnation  and  progress,  between  formalism 
and  freedom,  between  legalism  and  love.  And 
further,  it  was  a  question  between  era  and  era  in  his- 
tory; between  dispensation  and  dispensation  in  the 
providence  of  God;  and  finally,  between  the  prophets 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  205 

of  God  speaking  with  a  transient  voice,  and  the  Son 
of  God,  who  is  the  Alpha  and  Omega,  whose  yea  is 
yea,  and  whose  nay  is  nay  for  evermore. 

Surely  if  ever  literalists  and  legalists  had  a  strong 
case  it  was  this.  Were  the  thunderings  upon  Mount 
Sinai  to  be  forgotten?  Were  the  blessings  upon 
Gerizim  and  the  curses  upon  Ebal  no  longer  to  be 
courted  and  dreaded?  Were  not  the  Sabbaths  of 
Israel  and  their  passovers  and  their  circumcision  to 
be  observed  "throughout  all  their  generations?" 
Was  not  Moses  sent  of  God?  Could  the  moral  law 
be  done  away,  and  was  not  the  ceremonial  law  done 
up  with  it  verse  by  verse?  Should  the  phylacteries 
upon  their  door  posts  and  the  rolls  of  their  Torah 
be  thrown  to  the  ash  pit,  and  that  by  men  who  had 
no  new  Torah  in  their  hands,  but  only  a  word  upon 
their  lips?  Was  the  Holy  City  to  lose  her  prestige, 
and  was  the  hated  Gerizim  after  all,  or  Antioch,  or 
any  other  place,  to  become  quite  as  acceptable  to 
Jehovah  as  the  place  toward  which  his  people  h-ad 
turned  their  faces  in  prayer  through  many  genera- 
tions? In  short,  were  the  chosen  people  to  be  no 
longer  the  chosen  people?  and  were  their  sacred 
places,  their  sacred  books,  their  sacred  days,  and 
their  sacred  names  to  go  for  naught? 

And  how  could  Paul  meet  such  appeals  to  law  and 
custom  and  prestige  except  by  what  would  surely 
seem  to  his  opponents  as  forced  interpretations  of 
passages  from  the  prophecies  of  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah 
and  Hosea;  or  by  an  appeal  to  the  fact  of  Gentile 


206  STUDIES    IN    ACTS 

conversions,  with  the  evident  fruits  of  the  Spirit 
aside  from  the  law,  an  argument  easily  depreciated 
by  legalists;  or  by  pleading  the  supremacy  of  Jesus, 
in  which  case  his  opponents  could  readily  show  to 
their  own  satisfaction  that  Jesus  indorsed  the  author- 
ity of  Moses,  having,  as  was  supposed,  lived  in 
conformity  to  the  law  of  Moses? 

It  was  one  of  those  cases  in  which  the  soul  of  the 
prophet  rises  up  to  the  intuitive  perception  of  what 
is  right,  and  in  spite  of  law  and  logic  says,  "You  are 
wrong;  the  heart  also  has  its  logic;  the  Holy  Spirit 
speaks ;  here  are  my  facts  fronting  your  syllogisms ; 
what  will  you  do?  " 

**  When  therefore  Paul  and  Barnabas  had  no  small 
dissension  and  disputation  with  them,  they  deter- 
mined that  Paul  and  Barnabas,  and  certain  other  of 
them,  should  go  up  to  Jerusalem  unto  the  apostles 
and  elders  about  this  question."  In  this  appeal 
Jerusalem  is  recognized,  according  to  Prof.  W.  M. 
Eamsay,  as  "the  administrative  center  of  the 
church."  The  appeal  is  appropriate  also  in  view 
of  the  claim  by  the  Judaizers  that  they  were  com- 
missioned by  the  apostles  (xv.  24).  As  indicating 
the  urgency  of  the  case,  and  the  baleful  influence  of 
the  Judaizers,  it  should  be  remembered  that  Peter, 
when  he  was  in  Antioch,  was  won  over  by  them, 
and  that  even  Barnabas  **  was  carried  away  by  their 
dissimulation."  Paul  alone  stood  firm.  His  quick 
and  incisive  rebuke  had  its  effect  on  Peter.  "  I  said 
to  Peter    before  them   all,   If    thou,   being  a  Jew, 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  207 

livest  after  the  manner  of  Gentiles,  and  not  as  do  the 
Jews,  why  compellest  thou  the  Gentiles  to  live  as  do 
the  Jews?  "  (Gal.  ii.  14).  This  happened,  according 
to  Prof.  Ramsay,  before  the  council  in  Jerusalem, 
and  not,  as  most  critics  suppose,  afterward,  and  the 
adjustment  helps  to  clear  up  several  hard  questions. 
Every  indication  therefore  is  that  the  Antioch  church 
was  disturbed  to  its  very  center,  and  since  that 
church  was  the  mother  of  Gentile  Christianity  the 
whole  of  the  Apostle  Paul's  movement  in  behalf 
of  a  cosmopolitan  faith  was  endangered. 

To  Paul  the  period  of  waiting  for  the  decision 
of  the  council  must  have  been  a  season  of  anxiety. 
Should  the  case  go  against  him  it  involved  one 
of  two  consequences,  either  a  schism  in  the  church, 
or  a  shrinking  back  of  the  Faith  from  her  youth  and 
vigor  and  expansion  like  an  old  and  lifeless  wine  into 
an  old  and  worthless  skin.  *'Paul  would  rather 
have  died,"  says  Farrar,  "  would  rather  have  suffered 
a  schism  between  the  Church  of  Jerusalem  and  the 
churches  of  her  Gentile  converts,  than  admit  that 
there  could  be  no  salvation  out  of  the  pale  of 
Mosaism.  ...  He  intended,  at  all  costs,  by 
almost  unlimited  concessions  in  the  case  of  indi- 
viduals (referring  to  the  circumcision  of  Timothy 
and  Titus),  by  unflinching  resistance  when  princi- 
ples were  endangered,  to  establish,  as  far  at  any  rate 
as  the  Gentiles  were  concerned,  the  truth  that  Christ 
had  obliterated  the  handwriting  in  force  against  us, 


208  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

and   had  taken  it  out  of  the  way,  nailing  the  torn 
fragments  of  its  decrees  to  his  cross." 

The  debate  came  on,  and  there  was  **much  dis- 
puting." The  "false  brethren"  were  there  with 
every  advantage  of  local  associations,  national  preju- 
dices, centuries  of  history,  the  written  law  with  its 
positive  injunctions  for  all  generations,  and,  more 
than  likely,  with  warnings  of  persecution  from  with- 
out should  a  word  be  spoken  against  the  law  of 
Moses  or  their  Holy  Place.  But  the  Apostle  Peter 
rose  up,  and  true  to  his  Pentecost  courage  and 
inspiration  repeated  his  experiences  in  Csesarea  ten 
years  before.  He  appealed  to  the  witness  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  on  that  occasion  in  the  acceptance  of  the 
Gentiles,  and  challenged  them  to  put  a  yoke  upon 
the  neck  of  the  Gentiles,  which,  he  said,  **  neither 
we  nor  our  fathers  were  able  to  bear."  Thereupon, 
in  true  Pauline  style,  he  declared  that  the  grace  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  the  only  ground  of  salvation 
for  Jews  and  Gentiles.  There  were  times  when 
Jesus  spoke  in  such  a  fashion  that  no  man  answered 
him  a  word,  and  the  Apostle  Peter  seems  to  have 
learned  from  the  Master  something  of  that  power  of 
speech  which  leaves  an  opponent  unmasked  and  non- 
plused. "Then  all  the  multitude  kept  silence,"  till 
at  last  Barnabas  and  Paul  rose,  "declaring  what 
miracles  and  wonders  God  had  wrought  among  the 
Gentiles  by  them."  Thus  were  the  hard  and  fast 
theologians  of  the  day,  the  men  with  an  a  priori 
creed,  cast  iron,  and  all  but  the  "anathema  sit"  to 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  209 

it,  the  men  rooted  and  grounded  in  their  grand- 
fathers' ways,  thoroughly  honest,  thoroughly  logical, 
thoroughly  stubborn,  the  typical,  self-appointed  con- 
servators of  the  faith,  the  anti-progressives,  knife  in 
hand — thus  were  they  smitten  with  facts.  Peter  and 
Paul  and  Barnabas  united  in  putting  Csesarea  and 
Antioch  and  Derbe  and  Lyst^a  and  Iconium  over 
against  Mount  Sinai.  In  all  these  places  God  had 
spoken  through  the  Holy  Spirit,  receiving  the  Gen- 
tiles, no  knife  in  hand.  Traditional  prejudice  must 
give  way  to  received  practice;  a  ipriori  theories  to 
the  logic  of  facts;  God's  ancient  law  engraved  on 
stone  to  his  latest  word  written  upon  fleshly  tables 
of  the  heart;  the  carnal  to  the  spiritual,  shadow  to 
substance,  type  to  anti-type.  Peter  and  Paul  and 
Barnabas  pursued  the  inductive  method,  collating 
facts,  treating  them  as  legal  tender,  and  upon  them 
basing  conclusions,  thus  anticipating  the  Baconian 
method  by  sixteen  centuries.  They  were  the  three 
mighty  Protestants  of  the  ancient  church. 

Last  of  all  James  spoke.  He  was  the  most  inter- 
esting figure  in  the  council.  As  "the  brother  of  the 
Lord,"  he  would  be  looked  upon  with  loving  rever- 
ence; as  the  bishop  of  the  church  in  Jerusalem,  his 
word  would  be  final,  not  as  dictatorial  but  as  repre- 
sentative; as  a  man  of  extreme  holiness,  he  would  be 
honored  by  all  parties.  "Tradition,"  says  Farrar, 
"as  embodied  in  an  Ebionite  romance,  represents 
him  as  wearing  no  wool,  but  clothed  in  fine  white 
linen  from   head    to   foot,   and — either    from    some 

14 


210  STUDIES    IN   ACTS 

priestly  element  in  his  genealogy,  or  to  symbolize  his 
episcopate  in  Jerusalem — as  wearing  on  his  forehead 
the  petalon,  or  golden  plate  of  high  priesthood.  It 
is  said  that  he  was  so  holy  and  so  highly  esteemed  by 
the  whole  Jewish  people  that  he  alone  was  allowed, 
like  the  high  priest,  to  enter  the  Holy  Place ;  that  he 
lived  a  celibate  and  ascetic  life;  that  he  spent  long 
hours  alone  in  the  temple  praying  for  the  people,  till 
his  knees  became  hard  and  callous  like  those  of  a 
camel;  that  he  had  the  power  of  working  miracles; 
that  rain  fell  in  accordance  with  his  prayers ;  that  it 
was  owing  to  his  prayers  that  God's  impending  wrath 
was  averted  from  the  nation;  that  he  received  the 
title  of  'The  Just,'  and  'Rampart  of  the  People,'  and 
that  he  was  shadowed  forth  in  the  images  of  the 
prophets." 

Such  was  the  traditional  man,  perhaps  not  very 
unlike  the  real  man,  who  now  rose  to  speak.  Having 
first  commanded  a  hearing,  he  indorsed  the  speech 
that  Peter  had  just  made,  fortifying  it  with  a  proph- 
ecy from  Amos,  quoted  from  the  Septuagint,  and 
declaring  that  the  reception  of  the  Gentiles,  recently 
wrought  by  the  Holy  Spirit  through  Peter  and  Paul 
and  Barnabas,  was  in  the  plans  of  God  from  the 
beginning.  Whereupon  he  gave  his  sentence  that 
the  Gentiles  should  not  be  troubled,  that  is,  by  the 
Judaizers,  but  that  they  should  be  exhorted  to 
abstain  from  pollutions  of  idols,  and  from  fornica- 
tion, and  from  things  strangled,  and  from  blood. 
The  last  sentence  of  this  speech  (verse  21)  contains 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS  211 

a  double  argument  for  the  proposed  compromise. 
First,  because  Moses  was  read  in  the  synagogue  every 
Sabbath  the  Jews  need  not  fear  for  the  law;  the 
apostles  to  the  Gentiles  were  not  interfering  with  this 
arrangement;  secondly,  because  this  was  the  case  the 
Gentiles  should  be  the  more  ready  to  abstain  from 
these,  to  the  Jews,  most  shocking  things.  That  for- 
nication and  idolatry  should  be  coupled  together 
seems  inevitable  when  it  is  remembered  that  much  of 
the  pagan  worship  was  accompanied  with  the  vilest 
orgies;  that  the  worship  of  Venus  under  various 
forms  and  names  was  widespread,  and  that  in 
Cyprus,  the  ancient  center  of  her  worship,  the  pollu- 
tions accompanying  it  became  a  scandal  even  to  the 
surrounding  pagan  countries.  The  thing  here  con- 
demned as  a  sin  both  by  the  legal  and  instinctive 
purity  of  Judaism,  coupled  with  Christian  sanctions, 
was  in  all  that  pagan  world  '*so  completely  a  matter 
of  indifference  that  Socrates  has  no  censure  for  it, 
and  Cicero  declares  that  no  pagan  moralist  ever 
dreamed  of  meeting  it  with  an  absolute  prohibition." 
Here  is  one  of  the  great  secrets  of  both  Jewish  and 
Christian  antagonism  to  idolatry,  and  the  modern 
Parliaments  of  Religion  that  cover  up  or  condone  the 
same  pollutions  existing  rampant  in  the  Buddhistic 
and  Brahmanistic  cults  of  this  day,  will  probably  not 
get  very  far  on  the  road  toward  harmonizing  the 
ancient  Hebrew  purity,  still  cardinal  in  Christianity, 
with  the  ancient  idolatrous  impurity,  still  a  factor  of 
pagan  worship. 


212  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

"The  apostles  and  elders  and  the  whole  church" 
agreed  to  the  compromise  proposed  by  James,  and 
wrote  to  the  Gentiles  in  Antioch  a  delightfully  fra- 
ternal letter,  and  sent  it  by  the  hands  of  Barnabas 
and  Paul,  accompanied  by  two  of  their  own  chief 
men,  Judas  and  Silas,  who  were  instructed  to  teach 
the  same  things  by  word  of  mouth,  which,  being 
prophets,  they  did  with  much  exhortation.  When 
the  letter  was  read  to  the  Christians  of  Antioch,  they 
"rejoiced  for  the  consolation." 

Four  points  are  to  be  noted:  First,  The  decision 
was  a  triumph  for  the  Apostle  Paul  and  his  co-work- 
ers. They  could  now  go  out  into  the  Gentile  world 
and  preach  the  Gospel  as  free  from  the  fetters  of 
legalism  as  though  they  were  presenting  mathemat- 
ical axioms.  It  is  true  that  the  great  apostle  was 
followed  and  troubled  by  Judaizers  as  long  as  he 
lived,  but  they  could  never  again  claim  the  authority 
of  the  Jerusalem  church.  As  this  Judaizing  party 
was  the  occasion  of  the  first  church  council,  and  con- 
sequently of  the  first  document  of  the  Christian 
church,  so  by  its  persistence  it  occasioned  the  major 
part  of  the  literature  that  we  owe  to  the  Apostle 
Paul.  Galatians  and  Romans  cannot  be  understood 
aside  from  this  controversy.  It  appears  also  in 
First  and  Second  Corinthians,  and  in  Ephesians,  and 
Colossians,  and  Philippians,  and  First  Thessalonians. 
To  the  end  this  great  man  remained  true  to  the  trust 
that  Christ  had  committed  to  him,  as  to  a  "chosen 
vessel,"  the  trust  of  Gospel  truth  and  Gospel  love 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  213 

and  Gospel  liberty;  and  when  he  penned  his  farewell 
to  Timothy  he  had  two  things  upon  which  justly  to 
congratulate  himself — he  had  "fought  a  good  fight'' 
(with  Judaizers,  no  doubt),  and  he  had  kept  *'  the 
faith." 

Secondly,  The  decision,  like  most  compromises, 
was  but  a  temporary  settlement  of  the  dispute. 
De  Pressense,  quoted  by  Prof.  B.  A.  Hinsdale,  says: 
"The  barrier  was  lowered,  not  removed.  Thus,  no 
sooner  was  the  decision  communicated,  than  it  re- 
ceived various  interpretations.  Paul  drew  from  it 
inferences  which  were  undoubtedly  by  implication 
contained  in  it,  but  which  were  not  equally  evident  to 
the  minds  of  all."  Several  questions  of  importance 
were  not  touched  upon  in  the  decision;  the  relation 
of  the  Jewish  Christians  themselves  to  the  Mosaic 
law  was  very  prudently  left  in  abeyance ;  likewise  the 
social  relations  of  Jewish  and  Gentile  Christians; 
these  and  some  other  questions,  such  as  the  release 
of  all  Christians  from  the  Jewish  altar  worship,  and 
cleansings,  and  fasts,  and  Sabbaths,  were  left  to  be 
wrought  out  for  us  by  the  Apostle  Paul's  incisive  dis- 
tinctions between  Moses  and  Christ,  between  the  law 
and  the  Gospel,  the  former  as  preparatory  and  tetn- 
porary,  the  latter  as  all-sufficient  and  final.  The 
tenacity  of  the  Judaizing  party  for  the  law  of  their 
fathers  is  most  pathetic.  Spite  of  the  decision  of 
the  council,  and  the  sanction  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in 
the  reception  of  Gentiles,  and  Christ's  formally  de- 
clared supremacy,  they  could  not  seem  to  get  over 


214  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

their  fondness  for  the  letter  of  the  law.  God's  final 
warnings  to  them  in  the  utter  destruction  of  Jerusa- 
lem, and  the  temple,  and  the  altar  forms  of  worship 
there,  were  unheeded.  They  continued  their  opposi- 
tion to  the  progressive  forms  of  the  faith  until  they 
fell  logically  into  the  heresy  of  denying  the  divine 
nature  of  Jesus ;  they  branded  the  Apostle  Paul  as  a 
heretic,  and  became  themselves  the  Ebionite  secta- 
rians of  the  first  and  second  centuries,  and  dwindled 
by  the  middle  of  the  latter  century  into  insignifi- 
cance. 

Thirdly,  This  council  was  thoroughly  democratic. 
Grant  that  the  reading  "  and  brethren,"  in  the  twen- 
ty-third verse  is  a  corruption;  yet  the  democratic 
character  of  the  council  is  shown  by  the  twenty- 
second  verse,  which  reads:  ''Then  pleased  it  the 
apostles  and  elders,  with  the  whole  church,  to  send 
chosen  men  of  their  own  company  to  Antioch  with 
Paul  and  Barnabas."  No  one  assumed  autocratic 
authority.  Even  Peter  is  designated  in  the  speech 
of  James  by  his  old,  unapostolic  name,  Simeon. 
Perhaps  it  is  for  these  reasons  that  Farrar  contends 
that  the  council  was  not  a  council  at  all.  According 
to  the  Anglican  and  Romish  notions  of  a  council 
as  being  thoroughly  aristocratic,  the  laity  and  infe- 
rior orders  of  the  clergy  not  being  admitted,  this 
was  not  a  council.  But  if  open  debate  in  the  spirit 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  with  the  right  of  suffrage  ex- 
tended to  all;  if  a  decision  arrived  at  by  "  the  com- 
mon sense  of  most;"  if,  in  short,  brotherly  counsels 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  215 

and  brotherly  conclusions  constitute  a  council,  this 
was  a  council. 

Lastly,  As  the  presence  of  sin  magnifies  the  work- 
ings of  grace,  so  the  intensity  of  Judaism  magnifies 
the  Christly  charity  and  liberty  of  the  Jerusalem' 
church.  Even  as  a  compromise,  the  decision  is  won- 
derful. James  and  others  must  have  felt  that  it 
broke  the  trend  of  the  centuries.  It  was  revolution- 
ary, and  they  knew  that  to  the  Jews  as  a  nation,  it 
would  appear  as  a  denial  of  the  faith  of  their  fath- 
ers. It  was  a  reverent  and  painful  slap  in  the  face 
of  tradition.  But  the  Holy  Spirit,  genius  and  guide 
of  the  new  age,  was  imperious;  he  demanded  this 
break  in  the  centuries,  and  to  him  the  church  was 
loyal.  This  was  an  hour  freighted  with  destinies, 
and  these  men  were  fitted  for  the  emergency  by  *'  the 
power  from  on  high."  How  reverently  they  couch 
their  decision !  And  what  historic  majesty  there  is 
in  it!  **  It  seemed  good  to  the  Holy  Spirit — and  to 
us!" 


XI. 
THE  FIRST  MISSIONARY  JOURNEY  IN    EUROPE 


"Where  should  Paul  be  studied,  loved  and  venerated  if  not  in 
England?  Are  not  English  Christians  in  a  very  special  sense  his 
spiritual  children?  Do  they  not  owe  to  him  the  character  of  their 
religion,  the  form  of  their  doctrine,  even  their  principles  of  religious 
liberty  and  civil  right?  Is  not  Anglo-Saxon  society  his  work? 
Does  not  his  spirit  pervade  the  thousand  ramifications  of  English 
civilization,  extending  from  individual  conduct  to  the  highest  scien- 
tific activity,  and  from  domestic  life  to  political  debates  in  Parlia- 
ment ?  " — Sabatici: 

"All  zones  are  one  seed-field. 
And  one  the  fostering  sky. 
Best  germs  the  ripened  ages  yield 
On  world-wide  pinions  fly."— JosepTi  Cook. 
218 


XI. 

THE  FIRST  MISSIONARY  JOURNEY  IN  EUROPE. 

"And  a  vision  appeared  to  Paul  in  the  night;  There  stood  a  man. 
of  Macedonia,  and  prayed  him,  saying,  Come  over  into  Macedonia 
and  help  us." — Acts  xvi.  9. 

This  vision  has  the  strangeness  of  romance,  the 
sternness  of  history,  and  the  pathos  of  prayer.  It  is 
the  way  by  which  the  Holy  Spirit  signifies  to  Paul 
that  he  has  been  appointed  as  the  actor  in  a  new 
march  of  events.  The  waves  of  Gospel  influence 
must  be  kept  rolling  outward,  and  this  is  the  signal 
for  an  advance.  Jerusalem,  Judaea,  Samaria,  the 
uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  (Acts  i.  8) — that  is  the 
Savior's  programme;  and  the  Apostle  Paul,  guided 
by  the  Holy  Spirit,  has  now  the  primacy  in  carrying 
it  out.  Peter  is  not  again  named  in  Acts;  Jerusalem 
has  already  become  second  to  Antioch ;  the  work  of 
Barnabas  even,  is  left  in  obscurity,  and  the  historian 
deals  only  with  this  foremost  man  upon  the  foremost 
confines  of  the  pagan  world. 

Twice  the  Holy  Spirit  interfered  with  Paul's  plans 
before  the  directing  vision  was  granted  him.  When 
he  had  "made  a  missionary  progress"  throughout 
Phrygia  and  the  region  of  Galatia,  he  evidently  de- 
sired to  preach  in  "Asia,"  but  the  Holy  Spirit  for- 
bade   him    ( ch.  xvi.  6).      Then    he    wanted    to    go 

219 


220  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

into  Bithynia,  *'and  the  Spirit  suffered  him  not." 
So  passing  through  Mysia,  and  at  the  same  time  pass- 
ing it  by,  he  came  down  to  Troas.  Paul's  traveling 
companions  at  this  time  were  Silas,  who  accompanied 
him  from  the  home  church  in  Antioch,  and  Timothy, 
a  son  in  the  Gospel,  whose  home  was  in  Lystra, 
whose  mother  was  a  Jewess,  whose  father  was  a 
Greek,  and  whom  Paul  circumcised,  not  as  a  matter 
of  compulsion  but  of  concession. 

At  Troas,  however,  a  third  companion  announces 
his  presence  in  the  briefest  and  least  pretentious  of  all 
imaginable  ways.  He  simply  says  *'we"  (xvi.  10) — , 
and  then  goes  on  writing  about  the  whole  company. 
In  this  way  the  writer  of  Acts  identifies  himself  with 
the  history  he  relates.  Paul  is  his  hero,  and  he  but 
the  humblest  of  fellow- workers.  It  is  a  shrewd  and 
very  interesting  guess  of  Prof.  Ramsay's,  that  Luke 
was  a  Macedonian;  that  being  a  physician  he  had 
come  to  Troas  on  business;  that  through  professional 
services  he  became  acquainted  with  Paul,  and  was 
converted;  that  he  himself  was  the  **man  of  Mace- 
donia "  whom  Paul  saw  in  a  vision;  that  Philippi  was 
his  home,  and  that  he  was  Paul's  first  host  and 
helper  in  this,  the  first  city  in  that  part  of  Mace- 
donia. 

The  Apostle  Paul's  voyage  across  the  JEgean  Sea 
must  have  seemed  to  him  like  a  progress  merely  from 
province  to  province.  All  that  world  was  Rome,  and 
all  these  provinces  were  hers.  But  as  we  see  it  his 
voyage  was  from  continent  to  continent,  so  does  the 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  221 

perspective  of  centuries  enlarge  rather  than  diminish 
the  plans  of  Providence.  The  following  paragraph, 
from  an  eloquent  lecture  by  Joseph  Cook,  will  help 
us  to  seize  upon  the  historic  significance  of  the  call  of 
the  ''man  from  Macedonia:" 

"Before  the  battles  of  Marathon  and  Salamis,  Asia 
predominated  in  the  world's  affairs.  Since  those 
contests  she  has  always  held  a  second  rank.  This 
steel-gray  narrow  sheet  of  murmurous  salt  water  has 
been  thus  visibly  touched  in  human  history  by  that 
finger  at  whose  contact  the  hills  melt  and  the  moun- 
tains smoke;  and,  therefore,  even  after  2,300  years 
the  waves  flash  here,  between  the  bleak,  rocky 
shores,  with  a  light  better  than  that  of  the  sun. 
Greek  civilization,  on  that  great  day  when  the  women 
on  Salamis,  according  to  the  prophecy,  boiled  their 
meat  with  broken  oars,  was  in  process  of  preserva- 
tion for  you  and  me.  And  among  the  corpses  which 
shut  out  the  moonlight  from  the  depths  of  this  clear 
water  on  the  night  after  the  battle,  the  plans  of  Prov- 
idence for  the  education  of  Kome,  of  London,  of 
Paris,  and  of  Boston  were  advancing." 

Troas  and  Neapolis,  therefore,  are  only  dots  on  the 
map ;  in  the  larger  sense,  quite  literally,  the  Apostle 
Paul  set  sail  from  Asia  and  landed  in  Europe,  and 
the  ship  that  bore  him  carried  a  more  precious  freight 
by  far  than  was  ever  borne  by  the  fleets  and  trans- 
ports of  Xerxes,  or  Philip  of  Macedon,  or  Alexan- 
der, or  any  of  the  Csesars.  Beyond  Macedonia  was 
Rome;    and    beyond   Rome,  .Germany;    and    beyond 


222  STUDIES    IN    ACTS 

Germany,  Britain;  and  beyond  Britain,  America;  and 
still  beyond  America,  an  Asia  that  was  not  in  the 
dreams  even  of  the  greatest  of  the  Caesars.  And 
toward  all  these  nations  the  face  of  Paul  was  turned, 
though  he  knew  it  not;  and  through  him  westward 
the  Gospel  was  destined  to  take  its  coarse,  guiding 
and  inspiring  the  course  of  empire,  till  it  should  en- 
compass the  earth.  What  mighty  works  were  yet  to 
be  wrought  by  Greece  and  Rome,  and  by  the  bar- 
barians that  Caesar  presumed  to  have  conquered! 
What  battles  and  victories !  What  governments,  civ- 
ilizations, progress!  What  mistakes,  sorrows,  revo- 
lutions and  triumphs,  both  of  war  and  peace !  And 
the  "man  of  Macedon  "  uttered  the  cry  of  deepest 
need,  and  the  pathetic  prayer  of  all  these  "kindreds 
and  tongues  and  peoples  and  nations  "  through  their 
centuries  of  struggle  when  he  said  to  the  missionary 
of  the  cross,  "Come  over  and  help  us." 

It  was  an  ancient  custom  of  the  Jews  to  meet  by  a 
river  side  for  prayer  when  no  synagogue  was  at  hand. 
One  of  the  exiles  of  the  great  captivity  sang : 

"  By  the  rivers  of  Babylon, 
There  we  sat  down,  yea  we  wept 
When  we  remembered  Zion; 

We  hanged  our  harps  upon  the  willows  in  the  midst  thereof ; 
For  there  they  that  carried  us  away  captive, 
Required  of  us  mirth,  saying, 
Sing  us  one  of  the  songs  of  Zion." 

Finding,  as  it  would  seem,  no  synagogue  in  the 
city  of  Philippi,  Paul  and  Luke,  therefore,  on  the 
Sabbath  sought  the  customary  place  of  prayer  by  the 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  223 

river.  There  they  found  Lydia,  *'a  seller  of  pur- 
ple," and  her  household,  worshiping  God.  The 
Lord  opened  her  heart;  she  attended  to  the  things 
that  Paul  spoke;  she  was  baptized,  and  her  house- 
hold. Luke's  record  of  this  first  conversion  in 
Europe  (xvi.  14,  15)  is  precise,  unadorned,  and  beau- 
tiful. It  is  his  style  to  state  facts;  he  seeks  little 
from  the  arts  of  rhetoric ;  but  here  in  the  statement 
of  the  fact  he  produces  a  picture,  and  the  circum- 
stances and  the  associations  unite  in  giving  to  it  the 
character  and  the  sacredness  of  an  ancient  master- 
piece. There  is  no  incompleteness  about  it.  There 
is  the  place  and  the  spirit  of  prayer;  there  is  the 
preacher  and  his  audience;  there  is  the  declaration  of 
the  Gospel  and  its  confession  in  baptism;  there  is  the 
sisterly  hospitality  that  springs  from  gratitude  for 
the  gift  of  faith  and  hope  and  love.  And  all  this  is 
set  within  the  somber  background  of  Greek  and 
Roman  history.  The  city  was  named  for  Philip,  the 
father  of  Alexander  the  Great,  and  was  a  monument 
of  his  empire.  A  hundred  and  sixty-eight  years 
before  Christ  it  fell  into  the  hands  of  Rome.  Ninety- 
four  years  before  the  visit  of  Paul,  not  far  from 
Lydia's  place  of  prayer,  occurred  the  battle  of 
Philippi,  which  decided  the  fate  of  the  republic  of 
Rome,  and  introduced  the  imperial  system.  Here 
Cassius  and  Brutus  committed  suicide,  the  former 
before,  the  latter  after  the  battle  was  lost.  But  in 
this  humble  baptism  there  was  the  beginning  of  a 
mightier  and  more  beneficent  movement  for  Europe 


224  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

and  the  world  than  could  possibly  spring  from  the 
battlefields  of  Greece  and  Rome.  One  cannot  for- 
bear the  reflection  that  perhaps  the  nearest  approach 
in  modern  times,  as  regards  historic  interest,  to  this 
baptism  in  the  Gangites  was  that  one  in  the  Ganges, 
when,  in  the  year  1800,  on  Christmas  day,  Chrishna 
Pal  confessed  in  his  body,  at  the  hands  of  William 
Carey,  the  death  and  resurrection  of  Jesus. 

Dr.  J.  M.  Stifler  has  an  interesting  suggestion  in 
explanation  of  Luke's  care  in  describing  this  conver- 
sion: "Since  the  beginning  of  a  new  stage  finds 
record  here,  we  have  some  repetitions  of  features 
seen  before.  Years  have  passed  away,  the  Gospel 
has  spread  far  and  wide,  but  baptism  has  not  been 
mentioned  since  the  story  looked  at  Peter  in  the 
household  of  Cornelius.  When  the  Gentile  work 
began  it  was  necessary  to  show  that  baptism  would 
attend  it,  but  after  that  mention  there  is  no  other  till 
we  come  to  the  household  of  Lydia  and  the  jailer. 
For  here  again  we  are  at  the  center  of  a  new  circle." 

The  same  author  brings  together  other  parallels 
that  are  interesting.  "  Samaria  triumphed  over 
Simon  Magus.  Paphos  left  Elyraas  groping  in  blind- 
ness. The  strong  man  armed  is  again  encountered 
(referring  to  ch.  xvi.  16-18),  only  to  suffer  the  spoil 
of  another  of  his  chattels.  The  meeting  of  an  evil 
spirit  on  the  entrance  of  the  Gospel  into  Europe,  is 
in  harmony  with  the  cases  above  cited,  is  in  harmony 
with  the  hindrances  of  divine  grace  from  the  dawn 
of  history.     Satan  blocks  the   way  as   soon  as  it  is 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  225 

entered."  This  insane  slave-girl,  ventriloquist  and 
soothsayer,  is  another  example  of  those  numerous 
'*  dabblers  in  the  black  art  "  that  belong  to  the  times 
of  Paul.  Of  course  her  advertisement  of  Paul  and 
his  missionary  co-workers  as  the  servants  of  the  most 
high  God,  and  the  preachers  of  the  way  of  salvation, 
was  such  as  to  bring  the  sobriety  and  dignity  of  the 
Gospel  into  disrepute.  The  triflers  of  the  city  must 
have  jeered  continually  at  seeing  this  crazy  girl  fol- 
lowing the  missionaries,  and  calling  after  theui.  At 
last  Paul  rebuked  the  spirit,  and  healed  her.  This 
destroyed  her  commercial  value,  and  brought  down 
upon  him  the  persecution  of  her  owners,  for  there 
were  not  wanting  men  so  mean  as  to  make  specula- 
tion out  of  such  maladies,  and  people  so  superstitious 
as  to  pay  the  price  of  such  fortune  telling.  It  was 
easy  to  call  out  the  mob  by  shouting  that  the  customs 
of  the  Romans  were  endangered,  and  the  result  was 
that  Paul  and  Silas  were  beaten  and  imprisoned. 
This  gave  the  occasion  for  the  midnight  prayer  and 
praise  meeting  in  the  prison;  the  earthquake;  the 
opening  of  the  prison  doors;  the  loosing  of  the  pris- 
oners; the  jailer's  intention  to  kill  himself,  suppos- 
ing his  prisoners  were  gone;  Paul's  gracious  inter- 
ference and  timely  preaching,  and  the  conversion  of 
a  household  the  same  hour  of  the  night. 

The  immersion  of  the  jailer  and  his  household 
offers  no  difficulties  to  scholarly  exegetes.  ''The 
rite  may  have  been  performed,"  says  DeWette,  "  in 
the  same  fountain  or  tank  in  which  the  jailer  had 

15 


226  STUDIES    IN   ACTS 

washed  them."  Meyer,  as  quoted  by  Hackett,  sug- 
gests that  the  water  was  in  the  court  of  the  house ; 
and  that  the  baptism  was  that  of  immersion,  which, 
he  says,  '*  formed  an  essential  part  of  the  symbolism 
of  the  act."  The  fact  that  the  jailer  brought  them 
out  of  the  prison  before  their  baptism  and  that  they 
did  not  come  into  his  house  till  after  it  had  taken 
place  is  favorable  to  immersion  rather  than  affusion , 
for  the  latter  could  most  likely  have  been  performed 
either  in  the  prison  or  the  house,  as  also  the  washing 
of  their  stripes. 

A  manly  trait  in  the  character  of  Paul  is  shown  in 
that  he  refused  to  go  secretly  away  bearing  the 
wounds  and  humiliation  of  his  unjustified  whipping. 
The  lictors  sent,  saying,  "  Let  these  men  go."  ''  Nay 
verily,"  said  Paul.  '*We  are  Romans;  we  are  un- 
condemned;  they  have  beaten  us;  they  shall  not 
thrust  us  out  privily;  let  them  come  themselves  and 
fetch  us  out."  Paul  gloried  in  necessary  sufferings 
for  Christ's  sake,  and  he  never  murmured  at  persecu- 
tions incurred  in  the  way  of  duty;  but  he  was  a 
stranger  to  monkish  asceticism,  and  superstitious 
trust  in  the  meritoriousness  of  penances  would  have 
been  a  horror  to  his  transparent  soul. 

The  next  church  established  by  Paul  was  in  the 
city  of  Thessalonica.  This  city  was  named  after 
a  sister  of  Alexander  the  Great;  it  was  on  the  direct 
road  from  Philippi  to  Rome;  it  was  situated  at  the 
head  of  the  Thermaic  Gulf,  and  has  been  an  impor- 
tant  point  from   Paul's   day  to   our   own.      To   the 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS 


227 


apostle  this  was  one  of  the  most  satisfactory  of  all 
the  churches.  His  first  letters  were  written  to  it; 
he  comforts  the  members  of  it  in  their  persecutions; 
exhorts  them  to  rejoice  unceasingly;  assures  them  of 
his  deep  love,  and  while  praying  for  them,  craves 
their  prayers. 

In  Berea  the  apostle  found  exceptional  Jews, 
*'more  noble  than  those  in  Thessalonica,"  in  that 
they  readily  received  the  word,  and  candidly  exam- 
ined the  Scriptures  to  confirm  it.  To  the  great  mis- 
sionary this  experience  must  have  been  as  delightful 
as  it  was  rare;  but  the  inevitable  happened.  Mali- 
cious Jews  from  Thessalonica  followed  him,  and 
again,  as    usual,  he  was  persecuted  and  driven  out. 

Athens  has  an  imperishable  charm  for  the  student. 
It  was  the  birthplace  of  Greek  history  and  philosophy 
and  rhetoric.  Immortal  names  are  associated  with  it, 
and  the  masterpieces  of  their  genius  are  the  admira- 
tion of  the  centuries.  "Were  Plato,  Socrates,  and 
Demosthenes  the  only  forms  visible  from  the  Acrop- 
olis, that  eminence  would  be  the  loftiest  outlook  on 
the  globe  over  human  intellectual  history.  At  the 
west  summit  of  the  Parthenon  there  is  a  point  from 
which  are  visible  the  groves  of  Plato's  Academy,  the 
daily  haunts  of  Socrates,  the  Pnyx  of  Demosthenes, 
the  grounds  of  the  Lyceum  of  Aristotle,  the  Mars' 
Hill  of  Paul,  the  Propylea  of  Phidias  and  Pericles,— 
the  theatre  of  ^schylus,  Sophocles,  and  Euripides,— 
the  mountain  slope  once  the  seat  of  Xerxes,— the 
path    to    Marathon   of    Miltiades,   and  the   Salamis 


228  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

straits  of  Aristides  and  Themistocles."  In  the  time 
of  Paul  Athens  was  the  home  of  philosophy  and 
frivolity,  of  art  and  idolatry.  Petronius  says  it  was 
more  easy  to  meet  a  god  than  a  man  in  Athens. 
"There  were  more  statues  in  Athens  than  in  all  the 
rest  of  Greece  put  together."  All  this  would  be  the 
more  displeasing  to  Paul  since  he  was  trained  in  a 
school  that  prohibited  the  representation  in  art  of 
the  human  form.  And  besides,  the  conventional 
nudity  of  Grecian  art  must  have  seemed  a  shocking 
degradation  to  the  severely  chaste  and  lofty  morals 
of  the  Hebrew  missionary.  "It  is  all  very  well," 
says  Farrar,  "for  sentimentalists  to  sigh  over  *  the 
beauty  that  was  Greece,  and  the  glory  that  was 
Rome; '  but  paganism  had  a  very  ragged  edge,  and  it 
was  this  that  Paul  daily  witnessed.  .  .  .  Perfect- 
ness  of  sculpture  might  have  been  impossible  without 
the  nude  athleticism  that  ministers  to  vice.  For  one 
who  placed  the  sublimity  of  manhood  in  perfect 
obedience  to  the  moral  law,  for  one  to  whom  purity 
and  self-control  were  elements  of  the  only  supreme 
ideal,  it  was  in  that  age  impossible  to  love,  impossi- 
ble to  regard  even  with  complacence,  an  art  which 
was  avowedly  the  handmaid  of  idolatry,  and  covertly 
the  patroness  of  shame.  Our  regret  for  the  extin- 
guished brilliancy  of  Athens  will  be  less  keen  when 
we  bear  in  mind  that  more  than  any  other  city  she 
has  been  the  corruptress  of  the  world." 

Thus  Paul  confronted  art  in  Athens,  while  in  the 
persons  of  the  Epicureans  and  the  Stoics  he  encoun- 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  229 

tered  philosophy.  The  former  were  materialistic  and 
therefore  practically  atheistic;  they  sought  pleasure 
as  the  highest  good,  and  descended  into  the  pathways 
of  sensuality  in  their  search.  The  substance  of  their 
beastly  teaching  is  put  in  a  single  phrase  by  Paul  in 
the  fifteenth  chapter  of  I.  Corinthians,  when,  upon 
the  supposition  that  Christianity  is  false  and  the  dead 
rise  not,  he  says,  "Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  to-mor- 
row we  die." 

Considering  Stoicism  as  the  noblest  of  the  Greek 
philosophies,  it  was  nevertheless  fatalistic  and  panthe- 
istic. The  Stoics  aimed  at  a  laudable  self-control, 
but  ended  in  heartless  indifference  to  the  conditions 
around  them,  and  in  the  justification  of  suicide.  Of 
the  Christian's  Godward  trust  and  manward  sympa- 
thy they  knew  nothing,  and  the  trend  of  their  teach- 
ing was  the  direct  antithesis  of  Christian  altruism. 
For  four  hundred  years  these  systems  of  thought  had 
been  uppermost  in  Athens,  and  at  last  they  had 
degenerated,  the  one  into  "the  apotheosis  of  sui- 
cide," the  other  into  "the  glorification  of  lust." 

From  every  humane  and  beneficent  standpoint  the 
failure  of  the  philosophy  and  art  of  Athens  is  con- 
spicuous. They  had  filled  the  city  with  idols  and 
idlers;  with  a  university  of  philosophic  triflers,  and  a 
population  of  news-mongers;  with  voluptuous  priests 
and  unknown  gods.  The  best  name  that  such  a  peo- 
ple could  find  for  so  great  and  serious  a  soul  as 
Paul  was  a  piece  of  their  street  slang;  they  called 
him    "Spermologus,"  by  which   they   meant   almost 


230  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

any  amount  of  contempt,  a  babbler,  a  seed-picker, 
**an  ignorant  plagiarist,"  a  worthless  fellow  with 
scraps  of  learning.  However,  he  had  something  new 
to  tell  them,  and  so  they  took  hold  of  him  and 
brought  him  to  the  Areopagus,  not  necessarily  to 
Mars'  Hill,  but  to  their  highest  court,  and  not  for  a 
court  trial,  but  for  the  sake  of  curiosity. 

In  the  city  of  Socrates  Paul  had  adopted  the  So- 
cratic  method;  he  had  gone  about  the  streets  engag- 
ing this  one  and  that  one  in  conversation.  But  Athens 
was  also  the  city  of  Demosthenes,  and  the  Areopagus 
demanded  of  him  an  oration.  By  his  courtly  and 
undaunted  bearing  he  plainly  said  in  the  presence  of 
these  degenerate  descendants  of  great  thinkers,  '*I 
am  not  ashamed  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ."  We  know 
that  the  orations  of  Demosthenes  have  lived;  we 
know  that  this  sermon  of  Paul's  will  live.  The 
grouping  of  his  thoughts,  the  delicacy  and  daring  of 
his  polemics,  and  the  novelty  of  his  theme  must  have 
been  alike  startling  to  his  Athenian  auditors,  as  they 
are  the  admiration  of  his  latest  readers.  The  tact 
and  dignity  of  his  introduction  are  spoiled  by  the 
King  James  translators,  for  Paul  would  not  have  in- 
sulted an  Athenian  audience  to  begin  with  by  calling 
them  superstitious.  Such  bluntness  and  bungling 
would  not  be  in  keeping  with  his  genteel  rule  of 
**  becoming  all  things  to  all  men  that  he  might  by  all 
means  save  some." 

This,  rather,  is  his  introduction:  "Men  of  Athens, 
I  perceive  that  you   carry  your  religious  reverence 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  231 

very  far,  for  as  I  passed  by  I  beheld  an  altar  with 
this  inscription,  To  an  Unknown  God.  What  there- 
fore ye  worship  in  ignorance,  this  set  I  forth  unto 
you." 

Having  seized  this  text  from  one  of  their  own 
altars,  he  seized  also  a  quotation  from  one  of  their 
own  poets,  and  upon  this  double  basis  chosen  in 
common  with  them  he  declared  that  the  God  con- 
fessedly unknown  to  them  is  Creator  and  Father, 
indirectly  rebuking  in  this  double  proposition  the 
pantheism  of  the  Stoics,  the  practical  atheism  of  the 
Epicureans,  the  polytheism  of  the  people,  and  the 
pride  of  caste  and  race  that  belonged  to  every  Greek. 
He  made  the  search  for  God  the  object  of  existence, 
thus  rebuking  their  contention  that  pleasure  is  the 
highest  good.  By  making  the  worship  of  God  a 
matter  not  of  the  hands  but  of  the  heart  of  the 
devotee  he  rebuked  the  meritoriousness  of  their  sacri- 
ficial cult.  By  deducing  the  idea  of  the  Godhead  from 
that  of  the  Fatherhood  of  God  he  rebuked  a  whole  city 
full  of  idols,  saying,  we  ought  not  to  think  that  what 
is  divine  is  like  unto  gold  or  silver  or  stone  graven  by 
art  or  man's  device.  In  conclusion  he  made  a  direct 
application,  calling  upon  them  to  repent,  and  warn- 
ing them  of  the  righteous  judgment  of  God;  and  all 
in  all,  both  warning  and  pleading  were  based  upon 
the  fact  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  from  the  dead. 

At  this  the  more  frivolous  mocked,  and  the  more 
seemingly  sober  said,  Felix-like,  '*  We  will  hear  thee 
again  of  this  matter." 


232  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

One  Areopagite  believed,  Dionysius  by  name;  and 
one  woman,  Damans  by  name.  Was  this  then  the 
result  of  Paul's  mission  to  Athens,  "The  eye  of 
Greece,"  *'  The  pride  of  the  world?"  A  city  full  of 
babblers  mistaking  Paul  for  a  babbler!  One  is  re- 
minded of  Carlyle's  fable,  adopted  from  the  Koran, 
of  men  turned  to  apes,  and  "  gibbering  very  genuine 
nonsense,  there  by  the  Dead  Sea."  But  this  was  not 
the  whole  result.  Could  Paul  have  foreseen  the 
church  that  afterwards  grew  up  in  Athens;  the  van- 
ishing of  her  gods  as  though  smitten  by  magic;  the 
giving  of  her  sons  and  daughters  in  Christian  mar- 
tyrdom; and  the  bishops  that  were  trained  in  her 
Christian  schools,  he  would  not  have  gone  so  sadly 
away,  and  we  can  imagine  him  exclaiming  in  antici- 
pated triumph,  "  God  hath  chosen  the  foolish  things 
of  the  world  to  confound  the  wise;  and  God  hath 
chosen  the  weak  things  of  the  world  to  confound  the 
things  that  are  mighty;  and  base  things  of  the  world, 
and  things  which  are  despised,  hath  God  chosen, 
and  things  which  are  not,  to  bring  to  naught  things 
that  are;  that  no  flesh  should  glory  in  his  presence." 

With  fine  rhetoric,  but  with  pagan  rather  than 
Christian  taste,  Renan  has  apostrophized  the  smit- 
ten idols  of  Athens;  "Ah,  beautiful  and  chaste 
images;  true  gods  and  goddesses,  tremble!  See  the 
man  who  will  raise  the  hammer  against  you.  The 
fatal  word  has  been  pronounced;  you  are  idols.  The 
mistake  of  this  ugly  little  Jew  will  be  your  death 
warrant."     With  vastly  finer  rhetoric,  and  with  iner- 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  233 

rant  Christian  taste,  Mrs.   Browning  has  sung  their 
requiem : 

"  Gods  of  Hellas !    gods  of  Hellas  I 
Can  ye  listen  in  your  silence? 
Can  your  mystic  voices  tell  us 
Where  ye  hide?    In  floating  islands, 
"With  a  wind  that  evermore 
Keeps  you  out  of  sight  of  shore? 
Pan,  Pan  is  dead. 

"  O  twelve  gods  of  Plato's  vision, 
Crowned  to  starry  wanderings, — 
"With  your  chariots  in  procession, 
And  your  silver  clash  of  wings  ! 
Very  pale  ye  seem  to  rise. 
Ghosts  of  Grecian  deities — 
Now  Pan  is  dead  ! 

"  Gods  I  we  vainly  do  adjure  you,— 
Ye  return  nor  voice  nor  sign ; 
Not  a  votary  could  secure  you 
Even  a  grave  for  your  Divine  ! 
Not  a  grave  to  show  thereby, 
Here  these  gray  old  gods  do  lie! 
Pan,  Pan  is  dead." 

Corinth  was  a  city  of  four  hundred  thousand  peo- 
ple when  Paul  visited  it.  A  hundred  and  forty-six 
years  before  Christ  the  Romans  had  destroyed  it; 
but  in  forty-four  before  Christ,  Julius  Csesar,  mark- 
ing the  importance  of  its  situation,  had  rebuilt  it  and 
colonized  it.  Lying  on  the  highway  of  travel  and 
commerce  between  the  East  and  the  West,  it  sprang 
into  prominence  with  surprising  rapidity,  and  became 
*'  The  Vanity  Fair  of  the  Roman  Empire,  at  once  the 
London  and   the    Paris   of   the   first    century   after 


234  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

Christ."  Its  wealth  and  its  profligacy  were  proverb- 
ial, and  to  its  nameless  and  more  degrading  vices 
were  given  by  the  worship  of  Venus,  the  sanctions  of 
religion.  It  had  all  the  traits  of  a  city  suddenly 
grown.  There  were  the  ugly  contrasts  between  the 
poor,  housed  in  their  ancients  huts  of  wood  or  straw, 
and  the  rich  adventurers  of  yesterday  dwelling  in 
palaces  adorned  with  relics  from  the  ancient  city, 
and  displaying  the  inevitable  arrogance  and  shallow 
culture  of  such  upstarts.  Side  by  side  with  the  sober 
business  man  of  means,  there  came  the  huckster  and 
the  trickster,  and  together  with  the  commerce  of  the 
nations  there  came  the  gods  of  the  nations  with  their 
devotees,  their  unsavory  priests,  and  their  prostitute 
priestesses.  Such  a  city  is  a  great  catch-all.  Farrar 
sa3's,  "  It  was  in  the  midst  of  this  mongrel  and  het- 
erogeneous population  of  Greek  adventurers  and 
Roman  bourgeois,  with  a  tainting  infusion  of  Phoeni- 
cians— this  mass  of  Jews,  ex-soldiers,  philosophers, 
merchants,  sailors,  freedmen,  slaves,  tradespeople, 
hucksters,  and  agents  of  every  form  of  vice — a  col- 
ony without  aristocracy,  without  traditions;  without 
well-established  citizens — that  the  toil-worn  Jewish 
wanderer  made  his  way." 

In  Corinth  the  Apostle  Paul  met  Aquila  and  Pris- 
cilla,  Jews,  lately  driven  from  Kome  by  an  edict  of 
the  Emperor  Claudius.  One  cannot  but  muse  upon 
these  three  wandering  and  persecuted  people  estab- 
lishing a  home  and  working  together  at  their  com- 
mon trade  of  tent-making.      Perhaps  they  first  met 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS  235 

in    the    synagogue,    for    there    it    was   not    unusual 
for    craftsmen    to    sit    together,     **  silversmiths    by 
themselves,    and    ironworkers    by    themselves,    and 
miners  by  themselves,  and  weavers  by  themselves, 
and  when  a  poor  man  came  there  he  recognized  the 
members  of    his   craft,    and   went   there,    and    from 
thence  was  his  support,  and  that  of  the  members  of 
his  house."     Whether  in  the  synagogue,  or  the  home, 
or  the  prison,  Paul  was  a  persistent  and  tireless  mis- 
sionary.    These  household  companions  could  not  live 
with  him  long  without  hearing  of  the  Savior.     They 
became  thoroughly  instructed  Christians,  and  accom- 
panied him  to  Ephesus,  and   their  friendship  lasted 
as  long  as  Paul  lived.     At  a  later  date,  in  Ephesus 
Aquila    and    Priscilla   found    Apollos,    an    eloquent 
Alexandrian   and   disciple   of  John  the  Baptist,  and 
having  instructed   him  perfectly  in   the   way  of  the 
Gospel,    sent  him   as  a   preacher  to   the  church   in 
Corinth.     In  Rome  at  a  later  date  they  had  a  church 
in  their  house.     And  still  later,  once  more  in  Ephe- 
sus, they  received  through  Timothy  Paul's  last  earthly 
greetings. 

In  Corinth  Paul  was  persecuted  as  usual  by  the 
Jews.  The  incarnate  malice  that  nailed  Jesus  to  the 
cross  never  deserted  this  foremost  herald  of  the 
cross.  In  Jerusalem,  in  Pisidian  Antioch,  in  Iconi- 
um,  in  Lystra,  in  Thessalonica,  in  Berea,  in  Corinth, 
he  was  "in  perils  by  his  own  countrymen."  Such 
persistent  malice  would  have  discouraged  or  soured 
the  spirit  of  all  but  the  most  robust  and  saintly  of 


236  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

saints.  His  strength  came  from  an  unseen  source, 
and  receiving  mercy  he  fainted  not.  Two  things 
happened  in  Corinth  to  comfort  him  and  to  prolong 
his  stay.  In  a  time  of  deepest  need,  the  Lord  stood 
by  him  in  the  night,  and  said  to  him,  '*  Be  not  afraid, 
but  speak,  and  hold  not  thy  peace.  For  I  am  with 
thee,  and  no  man  shall  set  on  thee  to  hurt  thee;  for 
I  have  much  people  in  this  city"  (xviii.  9-11).  *'/ 
am  with  thee.''  Sustained  by  such  companionship, 
he  continued  a  year  and  six  months  teaching  the 
word  of  God  in  Corinth. 

Then  befell  to  his  advantage  one  of  those  unique 
incidents  which  are  capable  of  letting  us  so  far  into 
the  spirit  of  the  times.  The  Jews  attempted  an  ac- 
cusation of  Paul  at  the  judgment  seat  of  Gallio. 
Seneca  the  philosopher  was  brother  to  this  noble 
Roman,  and  said  of  him:  "  Those  who  love  him  best 
don't  love  him  enough;"  and  also,  *'No  mortal  is 
so  sweet  to  any  single  person  as  he  is  to  all  man- 
kind." He  was  the  perfection  of  kindliness,  court- 
liness and  nobility.  After  his  proconsulship  in 
Corinth  he  attained  to  the  consulship,  and  there  is  a 
tradition  that  he  was  murdered  by  Nero.  So  far  as 
concerns  our  present  study,  he  stands  as  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  Roman  policy  at  that  time  in  respect 
to  the  Jews  of  the  provinces,  evidently  considering 
Christianity  as  a  phase  of  Judaism.  Looking  with 
the  undisguised  contempt  of  the  typical  Roman 
ruler  upon  everything  pertaining  to  the  Jews,  he 
drove  them  from  his  judgment-seat  when  they  came 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS  237 

dragging  Paul  before  him,  refusing  to  be  a  judge  of 
questions  of  their  law.  Perhaps  Gallio  would  have 
cared  as  little  had  they  beaten  Paul  instead  of 
Sosthenes.  He  simply  declined  to  be  troubled  by 
them.  Perhaps  the  Greeks  joined  the  proconsul  in 
his  contempt  for  the  Jews,  and  may  be  Paul  had  won 
some  friends  among  them.  But  at  any  rate  the  non- 
chalance of  Gallio  and  the  prankishness  of  the 
Greeks,  put  a  sudden  stop  to  the  persecution  of  Paul 
**  by  his  own  countrymen,"  and  made  it  possible  for 
him  to  stay  "yet  a  good  while  "  in  Corinth,  so  that 
"  many  of  the  Corinthians,  hearing,  believed,  and 
were  baptized." 

So  far  as  Luke's  record  goes,  the  pioneer  mission- 
ary work  of  the  Apostle  Paul  may  be  fairly  said  to 
have  ended  at  Corinth.  Upon  his  third  journey  he 
did  a  great  and  fruitful  work,  but  it  was  mainly  if 
not  wholly  within  the  regions  covered  by  the  first 
and  second  journeys.  In  Rome  he  was  a  prisoner 
rather  than  a  pioneer,  and  besides,  others  had  pre- 
ceded him  as  preachers  in  that  city.  In  the  spring 
of  53,  he  set  sail  from  Corinth  for  Syria,  that  he 
might  attend  the  Passover  of  that  year  in  Jerusalem. 
"And  when  he  had  landed  at  Csesarea,  and  gone  up 
and  saluted  the  church,  he  went  down  to  Antioch." 

Was  he  coldly  received  in  Jerusalem?  Why  did 
he  hasten  away  to  Antioch?  Had  Paul's  position  as 
regards  the  law  caused  James  and  the  elders  to  recoil 
from  him?  Why  was  there  no  gathering  of  the 
church  to   receive  him   as  upon  a  former,  and  also 


238  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

upon  a  later,  occasion?  The  silence  of  Luke  throws 
a  veil  over  much.  But  knowing  the  Jews  we  can 
judge  much. 

Once  again,  and  once  only,  at  the  close  of  his  third 
missionary  journey,  he  visited  Jerusalem,  saying,  "  I 
go  bound  in  the  spirit  to  Jerusalem,  not  knowing  the 
things  that  shall  befall  me  there ;  save  that  the  Holy 
Spirit  witnesseth  in  every  city,  saying  that  bonds  and 
afflictions  abide  me.  But  none  of  these  things  move 
me,  neither  count  I  my  life  dear  unto  myself,  so  that 
I  might  finish  my  course  with  joy,  and  the  ministry 
which  I  have  received  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  to  testify 
the  Gospel  of  the  grace  of  God." 


XII. 
PAUL'S  FIRST   IMPRISONMENT  IN  ROME 


"Not  only  did  Paul  conquer  the  pagan  world  for  Jesus  Christ;  he 
accomplished  a  task  no  less  necessary,  and  perhaps  more  difficult,  in 
emancipating  at  the  same  time  infant  Christianity  from  Judaism, 
under  whose  guardianship  it  was  in  danger  of  being  stifled.  Besides 
removing  the  center  of  gravity  of  the  new  church,  the  advance  of  his 
mission  from  Jerusalem  to  Antioch,  from  Antioch  to  Ephesus,  and 
from  Ephesus  to  Rome,  he  also  succeeded  in  disengaging  from  the 
swaddling-bands  of  Judaism  the  spiritual  and  moral  principles 
which  constitute  Christianity  a  progressive  and  universal  religion." 
—Sabatier. 

240 


XII. 

PAUL'S  FIRST  IMPRISONMENT  IN   ROME. 

"I  am  standing  at  Caesar's  judgment  seat." — Acts  xxv.  10. 

Thus  Paul  appealed  from  his  Jewish  brethren  to  a 
pagan  court,  and  the  greatest  of  Christian  missiona- 
ries placed  himself  before  the  highest  of  political 
tribunals.  Two  years  before  he  had  entered  Jerusa- 
lem "bound  in  the  spirit,"  saying,  "I  know  not  the 
things  that  shall  befall  me  there;"  rescued  by  Lysias 
from  the  murderous  intent  of  his  own  people,  he  left 
the  city  in  the  night  escorted  by  a  guard  of  Roman 
soldiers.  Felix  found  no  fault  in  him,  and  Festus, 
successor  to  Felix  in  A.  D.  60,  found  no  fault  in  him. 
When  the  latter  proposed  to  release  him  from  all 
claims  of  Roman  law  on  condition  that  he  would  go 
back  to  Jerusalem  to  be  tried  by  the  Jews,  he,  know- 
ing his  rights  as  a  Roman  citizen,  and  dreading 
Caesar,  though  that  Caasar  chanced  to  be  Nero,  less 
than  the  Sanhedrin,  made  the  memorable  appeal 
under  which  at  last  he  reached  Rome.  By  the 
appeal  he  gained  the  continued  protection  of  the 
Roman  authorities  against  the  Jews,  who,  *'  or  ever 
he  came  near,"  were  ready  to  kill  him.  By  it  also  he 
was  enabled  to  carry  out  his  long  cherished  plan  of 
visiting  Rome  (xix.  21).  It  mattered  little  to  him 
that   he   should   be   carried   there   in   chains,  for   Ik 

'      16  241 


242  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

knew  how  to  ennoble  a  chain,  and  turn  its  very 
clanking  into  an  eloquence  that  should  speak  for  him 
of  the  "hope  of  Israel."  Others  might  be  ashamed 
of  his  chain,  he  was  not.  From  it  he  took  the  title, 
*'Bond  servant  of  Jesus  Christ,"  a  title  nobler  far 
than  any  mere  fragment  of  alphabetism  that  is  made 
to  adorn  or  desecrate  the  names  of  men.  Under  this 
title  he  proceeded  to  Rome,  and  this  was  the  title  he 
wore  while  he  was  the  imprisoned  primate  of  the 
church  in  Rome.  It  has  fallen  to  the  lot  of  his 
degenerate  non-apostolic  successors  of  later  ages  to 
deck  themselves  in  various  combinations  of  ecclesi- 
astical capital  letters,  always  with  corresponding 
millinery,  and  strut  about  the  "Holy  City."  He,  as 
lief  as  not,  would  enter  the  city  of  the  Caesars,  make 
the  acquaintance  of  Caesar's  household,  and  appear 
before  the  reigning  Caesar,  bound  like  a  culprit  to  a 
soldier  of  the  Caisars. 

Perhaps  he  saw  in  this  the  only  possible  way  of 
appearing  before  the  highest  potentate  on  earth,  for 
how  else  than  as  a  prisoner  demanding  his  legal 
rights  as  a  Roman  could  a  despised  Jew  get  himself 
before  the  Emperor  of  the  world!  How  else  could 
he  gain  the  opportunity  of  turning  for  one  brief  hour 
the  court  of  the  Empire  into  a  pulpit,  and  the  throne 
of  the  Caesars  into  a  pew  while  he  preached  Christ 
crucified!  Did  Paul  ever  appear  before  Nero  in 
person,  and  did  he  reason  of  righteousness,  temper- 
ance, and  the  judgment  to  come,  as  in  the  presence 
of  Felix?     And  was  there  in  that  degenerate  Caesar, 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  243 

that  malformed  specimen  of  human  kind,  still  left 
enough  of  humanity  to  tremble,  as  Felix  did? 
Luke's  history  ends  suddenly,  and  there  is  much  that 
we  shall  never  know,  but  the  possibility  of  such  a 
meeting  between  the  noblest  and  the  ignoblest  of 
men,  the  former  in  chains,  the  latter  on  a  throne,  is  a 
spur  to  the  imagination. 

By  his  appeal  to  Csesar,  and  his  consequent  trial  in 
Rome,  Paul  gained,  or  at  least  planned,  a  test  case  in 
the  supreme  court  of  his  day.  He  must  have  fore- 
seen that  general  persecutions  would  arise,  instigated 
by  Jews  and  pagans  alike,  if  the  sanctions  of  the 
Empire  were  not  obtained  for  the  growing  faith. 
He  could  reason  thus:  I  appeal  to  Caesar;  should  I 
be  acquitted,  Christianity  will  then  stand  as  a  religio 
licita,  and  Christians  throughout  the  Empire  can 
then  claim  the  protection  of  Rome.  This  supposi- 
tion ennobles  his  appeal  from  a  mere  matter  of  per- 
sonal self-defense  to  a  far-seeing  and  definitely 
planned  defense  of  all  Christians. 

It  should  be  noted  that  the  last  eight  chapters  of 
the  book  of  Acts  are  devoted  almost  exclusively  to 
Paul's  connection  with  Roman  officials.  A  tribune 
with  his  cohort  of  soldiers  saved  him  from  the  mob, 
and  led  him  to  the  tower  of  Antonia,  from  the  steps 
of  which  he  was  permitted  to  make  his  defense  to  his 
own  people  in  Hebrew.  When  certain  Jews  swore 
by  their  lives  that  they  would  kill  him,  Claudius 
Lysias  sent  him  under  guard  to  Felix.  Felix  pro- 
tected him,  heard  him,   and  trembled,   and  turned 


244  STUDIES    IN    ACTS 

him  over  after  two  years  to  Festus.  Festus  also 
protected  him,  declined  to  take  him  to  Jerusalem  for 
trial,  granted  his  appeal  to  CiBsar,  and  permitted  him 
to  speak  before  Agrippa.  Julius  the  centurion,  his 
guardian  on  the  well-nigh  disastrous  voyage  to  Rome, 
"entreated  him  courteously,"  permitted  him  to  visit 
his  friends  in  Sidon,  and  took  him  into  his  counsels 
during  the  voyage.  On  the  island  of  Melita,  Publius 
and  others  "honored  him  with  many  honors."  At 
Puteoli  his  Roman  guard  permitted  him  to  tarry 
seven  days  with  Christian  brethren.  At  Rome  he 
was  suffered  "to  dwell  by  himself,  with  a  soldier  that 
kept  him." 

It  is  an  attractive  theory  of  Prof.  Ramsay's,  that 
Luke  wrote  his  books,  the  Gospel  and  the  Acts,  the 
former  a  little  before,  and  the  latter  a  little  later 
than,  the  year  80;  that  at  that  time  there  was  a  grow- 
ing tendency  in  the  Empire  to  persecute  Christians 
because  they  were  Christians;  that,  therefore,  Luke 
had  a  well  defined  purpose  in  dwelling  so  at  length 
upon  the  relations  of  Paul  to  the  Empire,  namely,  to 
show  that  in  his  day  Christians  could  not  be  con- 
demned on  the  charge  of  being  Christians,  but  only, 
like  other  citizens,  upon  criminal  charges;  that  it  was 
his  intention  to  write  a  third  book  in  which  to  set 
forth  Paul's  trial  and  release,  and  later  ministry; 
that  the  completion  of  his  plan  w^ould  have  been  the 
completion  of  his  plea  for  Christianity  as  a  religio 
licita,  and  that  the  work  in  full  was  to  be  addressed, 
as  the  Gospel  and  the  Acts  certainly  are,  to  a  Roman 


STUDIES    IN   ACTS  245 

officer,  whose  baptismal  name  was  Theophilus.  In 
these  sentences  but  the  barest  outline  of  the  theory  is 
given,  and  the  reader  must  be  referred  to  Prof.  Ram- 
say's work  for  its  complete  statement  and  argu- 
mentation. Like  most  theories,  it  explains  some 
things,  raises  some  questions  that  it  does  not  settle, 
and  leaves  some  of  the  old  problems  without  solu- 
tion. If  the  late  date  assigned  be  accepted,  one  im- 
mediately wonders  w^hy  then  there  should  be  neither 
in  the  Gospel  nor  in  the  Acts  any  reference  to  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem  in  the  year  70;  why  nothing 
is  said  about  the  Neronian  persecutions,  and  why 
there  should  be  no  hint  of  the  heretical  tendencies 
that  were  troubling  the  church  late  in  the  century. 
The  supposition  of  an  intended  third  book,  which 
Luke  was  not  permitted  to  finish,  weighs  in  a  meas- 
ure against  these  objections,  and  also  explains  the 
abrupt  ending  of  the  Acts.  In  the  main,  the  theory 
seems  credible,  and  it  is  at  least  worthy  of  careful 
consideration. 

Luke's  description  of  the  voyage  from  Csesarea  to 
Rome  must  be  that  of  one  who  made  the  trip.  It  is 
not  fiction.  The  course  of  the  voyage  has  been 
retraced  point  by  point;  harbors,  such  as  Fair 
Havens  and  St.  Paul's  Bay,  have  been  visited  and 
identified,  and  even  the  soundings  recorded  by  Luke 
have  been  verified,  and  no  pains  have  been  spared  to 
test  the  accuracy  of  the  record.  The  vividness  and 
precision  of  the  account  are  such,  the  exactness  of 
the  soundings  and  of  the  specified  days  and  nights 


246  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

and  hours  is  such,  that  Luke  is  supposed  to  have 
kept  while  on  board  a  diary,  with  the  help  of  which 
at  a  later  date  he  framed  the  history.  Prof.  Ramsay 
says,  "The  account  of  the  voyage  as  a  whole  is  com- 
monly accepted  by  critics  as  the  most  trustworthy 
part  of  the  Acts,  and  as  one  of  the  most  instructive 
documents  for  the  knowledge  of  ancient  seaman- 
ship." We  should  be  aware  that  the  hyper-higher- 
critics  have  tried  their  hands  upon  this  chapter. 
They  have  discovered  in  the  "sections"  vv.  21-26 
and  vv.  33-35  a  better  role  and  a  higher  character  at- 
tributed to  Paul  than  in  vv.  10  and  31,  and  they  have 
forthwith  concluded  that  these  "sections"  are  the 
interpolations  of  a  later  writer,  who  sought  to  throw 
around  Paul  the  halo  of  a  mythical  heroism.  It  is 
interesting  therefore  to  know  the  opinion  of  the 
latest  great  specialist  in  this  field.  Prof.  Ramsay 
says: 

"  But  let  us  cut  out  every  verse  that  puts  Paul  on  a 
higher  plane,  and  observe  the  narrative  that  would 
result:  Paul  twice  comes  forward  with  advice  that  is 
cautiously  prudent,  and  shows  a  keen  regard  to  the 
chances  of  safety.  If  that  is  all  the  character  he 
displayed  throughout  the  voyage,  why  do  we  study 
the  man  and  his  fate?  All  experience  shows  that  in 
such  a  situation  there  is  often  found  some  one  to 
encourage  the  rest;  and  if  Paul  had  not  been  the 
man  to  comfort  and  cheer  his  despairing  shipmates, 
he  would  never  have  impressed  himself  on  history  or 
made   himself   an   interest  to   all    succeeding  times, 


STUDIES    IN   ACTS  247 

The  world's  history  stamps  the  interpolation  theory 
here  as  false.  ...  It  would  cut  out  the  center  of 
the  picture.  .  .  .  The  superhuman  element  is 
inextricably  involved  in  this  book;  you  cannot  cut  it 
out  by  any  critical  process  that  will  bear  scrutiny. 
You  must  take  all  or  leave  all." 

Rome  when  Paul  visited  it  was  a  city  of  two  mil- 
lions of  people,  the  cullings,  good,  bad,  and  indiffer- 
ent, from  every  nation  under  heaven.  Conqueror  and 
conquered,  master  and  slave,  soldier  and  citizen, 
Greeks,  Jews,  all  sorts  of  barbarians,  kinky-haired 
Africans,  blue-eyed  Germans,  matrons  as  noble  and 
chaste  as  the  mother  of  the  Gracchi,  matrons  who 
counted  their  age  by  the  number  of  husbands  they 
had  had,  multitudes  of  priests  and  prostitutes,  armies 
of  gladiators  and  droves  of  wild  beasts,  the  immensely 
rich  and  the  desperately  poor,  were  mingled  together 
in  that  awful  pell-mell  of  humanity,  which  had  as  its 
hope  against  starvation  the  corn  ships  from  Alexan- 
dria; as  its  chief  est  amusements,  the  midnight  brawl 
and  the  blood-soaked  sands  of  the  amphitheater;  and 
as  its  chief  citizen  Nero,  at  once  emperor,  "priest, 
atheist,  and  god."  Paul's  imprisonment  in  Rome 
fell  within  that  period  characterized  by  Gibbon  as 
the  iron  age,  the  period  that  succeeded  the  peaceful 
years  of  Augustus,  and  that  preceded  "the  golden 
age  of  Trajan  and  the  Antinonies."  There  falls 
within  the  purview  of  New  Testament  history  a  group 
of  the  successors  of  Augustus  which  Gibbon  has 
bunched    and    branded    in    the    following  summary 


248  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

way.  "Their  unparalleled  vices,  aud  the  splendid 
theater  on  which  they  were  acted,  have  saved  them 
from  oblivion.  The  dark,  unrelenting  Tiberias,  the 
furious  Caligula,  the  feeble  Claudius,  the  profligate 
and  cruel  Nero,  the  beastly  Vitellius,  and  the  timid, 
inhuman  Domitian,  are  condemned  to  everlasting 
infamy.  During  four-score  years  (excepting  only  the 
short  and  doubtful  respite  of  Vespasian's  reign) 
Rome  groaned  beneath  an  unremitting  tyranny, 
which  exterminated  the  ancient  families  of  the 
republic,  and  was  fatal  to  almost  every  virtue  and 
every  talent  that  arose  in  that  unhappy  period." 

It  was  Nero's  Rome  in  which  Paul  was  imprisoned. 
The  Rome  of  which  Nero  himself  grew  tired,  and 
which  he  burned  in  the  fury  of  his  passion  to  invent 
a  new  sensation.  Three  of  its  fourteen  precincts 
were  utterly  destroyed ;  four  only  escaped  the  flames, 
and  in  these  were  the  Imperial  palaces  and  gardens. 
To  these  gardens  the  terrified  populace  thronged, 
and  the  monstrous  Emperor,  to  excuse  himself, 
charged  the  incendiarism  on  the  Christians,  and  still 
fertile  in  the  diabolical  invention  of  sensations  and 
spectacles,  crucified  some;  sewed  some  in  the  skins 
of  wild  animals  and  thrust  them  out  to  the  dogs; 
and  others  still  he  steeped  in  pitch,  and  thrust  them 
out  in  blazing  tunics  to  light  up  the  gardens  while 
he  played  the  role  of  a  buffoon  and  charioteer.  This 
was  the  beginning  of  the  persecution  of  Christians  as 
Christians  by  the  Empire,  and  it  happened  in  the  year 
64,  only  four  years  after  Paul  entered  the  city  as  the 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  249 

*'  bond  servant  of  Jesus  Christ.  '     Gibbon  has  sketch- 
ed for  us   one   of  the   transformation   scenes  of  his- 
tory which  in  itself  is  suggestive  of  many  reflections. 
'*  The  gardens  and  the  circus  of  Nero  on  the  Vatican, 
which  were  polluted  with  the  blood  of  the  first  Chris- 
tians, have  been  rendered  still  more  famous  by  the 
triumph  and  by  the  abuse  of  the  persecuted  religion. 
On  the  same  spot  a  temple  which  far  surpasses  the 
ancient  glories  of  the  Capitol  has  since  been  erected 
by  the  Christian  Pontiffs,  who,  deriving  their  claim 
of  universal  dominion  from  an  humble  fisherman  of 
Galilee,  have  succeeded  to  the  throne  of  the  Caesars, 
given  laws  to  the  barbarian  conquerors  of  Rome,  and 
extended  their  spiritual  jurisdiction  from  the  coasts 
of  the   Baltic   to   the  shores  of  the  Facifio  Ocean." 
So   similarly   history   has   its  revenges  in  persons  as 
well  as  places.     While  Nero  was  at  the  same  moment 
claiming    divine    honors   and    outraging   all    human 
decency,  Paul  was  preaching  to  the  chance  visitors  at 
his  home  the  doctrines  which  were  destined  in  a  few 
generations  to  do  away  forever  with  the  impious  hon- 
ors  that    paganism    was   accustomed    to   pay   to   its 
potentates.     And   in   his   writings,  produced  in  part 
during  that  imprisonment,  he  has  left  enshrined  the 
same  doctrines,  more  enduring  than  the  ancient  Capi- 
tol or  the  modern  Temple,  and  destined  to  destroy 
the  superstitious  reverence  paid  by  devotees  scarcely 
less  than  pagan  to  a  spiritual  potentate  more  Roman- 
ized than  Christianized.     To  that   obscure   prisoner 
more  than  to  any  other  except  the  Savior  himself  was 


250  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

due  the  reformation  of  the  Empire  in  conduct  and 
doctrines,  and  to  him  we  owe  in  like  manner  the  very 
soul  and  body  of  the  sixteenth  century  Reformation, 
and  of  present  century  world-wide  evangelization. 
He  who,  glorying  only  in  the  cross  of  Christ,  was  so 
potent  to  smite  the  idols  of  his  own  day,  is  still 
potent,  through  the  kindred  souls  of  Martin  Luther 
and  William  Carey,  to  smite  the  more  modern  idols 
of  the  papacy  and  of  paganism. 

Before  Paul  reached  Rome,  forty  miles  out  at  Appii 
Forum,  and  again  thirty  miles  out  at  Tabernae,  he 
was  met  by  "  brethren  "  from  the  city,  "  whom, 
when  Paul  saw,  he  thanked  God  and  took  courage." 
There  was  already  a  church  in  Rome,  and  at  least 
two  years  before  Paul  had  addressed  to  these  same 
brethren  his  Roman  letter.  There  must  have  been 
some  who  knew  him  by  face.  Had  Priscilla  and 
Aquila  gone  back  to  Asia  before  Paul  reached  Rome? 
Timothy  was  with  him  much,  and  is  associated  with 
him  in  the  addresses  of  the  Colossian  and  Philippian 
letters,  and  in  that  to  Philemon.  Mark,  touchingly 
mentioned  as  "sister's  son  to  Barnabas"  (Col.  iv. 
10),  was  with  him,  and  Aristarchus  stayed  so  con- 
stantly with  him  as  to  deserve  the  appellation,  "  fel- 
low-prisoner." And  he  had- Luke,  his  "beloved 
physician,"  and  Epaphras,  a  "  dear  fellow-servant," 
and  minister  to  the  church  at  Colossoe,  perhaps  a 
young  man,  and  like  Timothy  and  Titus,  a  student  of 
Paul, — for  did  he  not  have  a  college  in  Rome,  and  a 
training  school  for  young   preachers  of  the  Word? 


STUDIES    IN   ACTS  251 

And  another  possible  student,  Demas,  who  afterward 
forsook  him,  "  having  loved  this  present  world," 
was  with  him.  And  lastly,  Tychicus,  '*  a  beloved 
brother  and  faithful  minister  of  the  Lord,"  by  whom 
the  letters  to  the  Colossians  and  Ephesians  were 
posted,  was  one  of  his  companions.  Ah,  that  hired 
house  in  Eome!  Was  it  not  at  once  the  home  of 
the  apostle,  his  hostlery  for  friends,  his  pulpit,  his 
professor's  chair,  and  his  editorial  sanctum,— and  his 
prison?  Could  we  identify  that  house,  could  we 
know  that  spot,  it  should  rank  with  Sinai  in  the  sanc- 
tity, and  higher  than  Sinai  in  the  potency  of  the 
voice  that  has  spoken  from  it ! 

It  seems  that  the  Jews  in  Eome  had  little  to  do 
with  Paul.  We  have  no  assurance  that  they  took 
part  in  the  proceedings  against  him.  Perhaps  they 
considered  prudence  the  better  part  of  valor.  They 
were  a  despised  people  in  Rome,  and  they  knew  it; 
Paul  was  a  favored  prisoner,  and  they  knew  that. 
When  he  called  them  to  him  three  days  after  his 
arrival,  and  laid  his  case  before  them,  they  professed 
to  know  nothing  about  it.  They  even  professed  a 
desire  to  hear  him,  for  they  said  with  a  touch  of 
malice,  "  As  concerning  this  sect,  we  know  that  it  is 
everywhere  spoken  against."  Upon  a  set  day  they 
heard  him  from  morning  till  evening  expounding  and 
testifying,  and  persuading  them,  *'both  out  of  the 
law  of  Moses  and  out  of  the  prophets."  As  usual, 
some  believed  and  some  did  not,  and  as  usual  they 
fell  into  a  violent  dispute  among  themselves.     That 


252  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

Paul  was  in  no  mood  to  curry  favor  with  them,  but 
only  to  enlighten  and  persuade  and  warn  them,  is 
shown  by  his  use  of  Isaiah's  terrible  anathema,  de- 
nouncing their  hardness  and  their  hopelessness,  and 
by  his  definitely  expressed  purpose  of  devoting  him- 
self to  the  Gentiles  (xxviii.  26-28). 

It  seems  also  that  the  Church  in  Rome  was  not  en- 
thusiastic in  its  loyalty  to  Paul.  In  the  last  chapter  of 
the  letter  to  the  Colossians  he  names  a  very  few  disci- 
ples, and  says,  ''  These  only  are  my  fellow-workers 
unto  the  kingdom  of  God,  which  have  been  a  comfort 
to  me."  In  his  second  letter  to  Timdthy,  he  com- 
plains bitterly,  and  with  prayers  for  his  deserters, 
that  at  his  first  defense  no  man  stood  with  him. 
Judaizers  may  have  influenced  some,  but  more  than 
likely  the  dread  of  Nero's  fickleness  and  cruelty 
rested  like  a  blight  upon  the  souls  of  all  but  Paul 
and  the  very  fewest  of  his  friends. 

There  are  some  indications  that  at  this  period 
Paul  was  not  penniless.  He  did  not  work  at  his 
trade,  and  he  seems  not  to  have  depended  on  alms. 
He  had  his  own  hired  house,  thus  escaping  the  loath- 
some prisons  of  that  day.  This  house  could  not 
have  been  in  the  poorer  quarters  of  the  city,  for  it 
must  have  been  easy  of  access  to  the  soldiers,  to 
one  of  whom  he  was  chained  daily  while  he 
was  in  Caesarea.  Felix  communed  with  him 
often,  courting  a  bribe  from  him,  which  evident- 
ly he  never  received.  But  the  fact  indicates  that 
Paul    had    money    at    his    disposal    (ch.    xxiv.   26). 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  253 

In  making  his  appeal  to  Caesar,  according  to  Prof. 
Ramsay,  he  was  entering  upon  an  expensive 
line  of  life.  We  are  reminded  by  the  same  author 
that  a  long  lawsuit  is  expensive;  that  Roman  offi- 
cials, such  as  Felix,  did  not  look  for  small  bribes; 
that  "  at  Csesarea  he  was  confined  to  the  palace  of 
Herod;  but  he  had  to  live,  to  maintain  two  attend- 
ants, and  to  keep  up  a  respectable  appearance;" 
that  he  was  attended,  perhaps  at  his  own  expense, 
by  Luke  and  Aristarchus,  who  to  the  Romans  would 
appear  as  his  slaves;  and  that  at  Rome,  in  addition 
to  the  expense  of  "  his  own  hired  house,"  he  would 
be  expected  to  maintain  the  soldier  who  guarded 
him.  Prof.  Ramsay's  solution  of  this  financial  phase 
of  the  question  is  pleasing,  and  it  casts  a  side  light 
on  his  theory  as  previously  referred  to.  Concluding 
that  Paul  must  have  been  a  man  of  some  wealth  dur- 
ing these  years,  he  suggests  that  either  he  had  come 
into  possession  of  his  hereditary  property,  or  if  he 
had  previously  been  disowned  by  his  relatives,  a 
reconciliation  had  been  reached,  and  his  property 
was  put  at  his  disposal.  If  so,  he  was  using  it  in 
defense  of  the  faith,  making  his  own  case  a  test  case 
in  the  highest  of  earthly  courts.  This  would  be  in 
perfect  keeping  with  the  character  of  the  man  who 
could  say,  "But  what  things  were  gain  to  me,  those 
I  counted  loss  for  Christ.  Yea,  doubtless,  and 
I  count  all  things  but  loss  for  the  excellency  of  the 
knowledge  of   Christ  Jesus  my  Lord;    for  whom  I 


254  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

have  suffered  all  things,  and  do  count  them  but  dross 
that  I  may  win  Christ." 

One  question  remains,  that  of  Paul's  acquittal  and 
subsequent  labors.  Over  this  Luke  has  left  the  veil 
of  his  silence.  Paul's  later  epistles  are  not  decisive. 
It  would  be  worse  than  idle  to  presume  upon  a  cate- 
gorical decision  here,  when  such  names  as  those  of 
Neander  and  Schaff  are  not  in  agreement.  No  doubt 
there  will  always  be  two  sides  to  the  question.  How- 
ever, the  higher  probability  seems  to  be  in  favor  of 
acquittal;  of  subsequent  work  in  Greece,  in  Asia 
Minor,  and  in  Crete;  of  (possibly)  a  brief  visit  to 
Spain;  of  a  second  imprisonment,  and  of  martyr- 
dom in  Rome  in  the  last  year  of  Nero's  reign. 

It  has  been  assumed  that  Paul  was  chosen  to  take 
the  place  of  Judas,  the  selection  of  Matthias  not 
having  been  directed  by  the  Holy  Spirit;  or  of  James, 
the  brother  of  John,  who  was  slain  by  Herod.  But 
there  is  a  deeper  significance  than  that  in  Paul's 
jDresence  among  the  apostles.  Israel  itself  should 
have  been  God's  missionary  people  to  other  peoples. 
But  they  '*  rejected  the  counsel  of  God  against  them- 
selves." They  would  not  be  convinced  even  by  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus.  They  persecuted  the  church. 
They  murdered  Stephen,  and  they  murdered  James. 
They  were  proud  of  their  particularism,  and  they 
determined  to  maintain  it.  They  were  formalists, 
legalists,  traditionalists,  nationalists.  They  would 
murder,  but  they  would  not  accept  and  teach  a  loft- 
ier faith   and  larger  hope  than   such  as  centered  in 


STUDIES    IN   ACTS  255 

themselves.  Even  the  Jerusalem  church,  though  not 
overruled  by  the  Judaizing  party,  was  crippled  by  it. 
From  that  nation,  therefore,  and  even  from  that 
church,  there  was  no  hope  of  a  world-wide  work. 
Paul  tvas  chosen  to  do  a  nation^s  work,  and  he  did  it 
as  completely  as  ever  one  mortal,  divinely  directed, 
could  take  the  place  of  myriads.  And  moreover,  he 
did  it  in  spite  of  those  myriads. 

The  number  of  the  Apostle  Paul's  students  and 
admirers  must  increase  with  increasing  ages.  Among 
great  students,  whether  professors  of  his  faith  or 
not,  there  is  all  but  unanimity  in  eulogy.  Farrar 
ranks  him  as  the  greatest  man  of  all  times,  Christ 
being,  of  course,  excepted  from  the  comparison  as 
being  more  than  man.  Sabatier  says  of  him:  "  The 
lofty  character  of  Paul  has  not  always  been  properly 
apprehended  because  it  has  too  often  been  considered 
from  a  narrow  point  of  view.  Its  striking  originality 
seems  to  be  due  to  the  fruitful  combination  in  it  of 
two  spiritual  forces,  two  orders  of  faculty  which  are 
seldom  found  united  in  this  day  in  one  personality, 
and  which  in  the  case  of  Jesus  alone  presented  them- 
selves more  perfectly  blended  and  carried  even  to  a 
further  height  than  in  the  apostle.  I  mean  dialectic 
power  and  religious  inspiration,  the  rational  and  the 
mystic  element.  Or  to  borrow  Paul's  own  language, 
the   activity  of  the   mind   (vovs)   and   of   the    spirit 

(irvcv/jta)." 

Godet  says:  "The  calling  of  Paul  was  nothing 
less  than  the   counterpart  of  Abraham's.      The  life 


256  STUDIES    IN   ACTS 

of  Paul  is  summed  up  in  a  word;  a  unique  man  for 
a  unique  task."  '*  O  Christianity,  had  thy  one  work 
been  to  produce  a  St.  Paul,  that  alone  would  have 
rendered  thee  dear  to  the  coldest  reason." 


XIII. 

THE   FIRST   HISTORY   OF   THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 

IN   THE    CHURCH 


"Christ  is  the  second  Adam,  who,  having  recapitulated  the  long 
development  of  humanity  into  himself,  taken  it  up  into  himself,  that 
is,  and  healed  its  wounds  and  fructified  its  barrenness,  gives  it  a 
fresh  start  by  a  new  birth  from  him.  The  Spirit  coming  forth  at 
Pentecost  out  of  his  uplifted  manhood,  as  from  a  glorious  fountain 
of  new  life,  perpetuates  all  its  richness,  its  power,  its  fullness  in  the 
organized  society  of  humanity  which  l)e  prepared  and  built  for  the 
Spirit's  habitation.  The  church,  his  Spirit-bearing  body,  comes 
forth  into  the  world,  not  as  the  exclusive  sphere  6f  the  Spirit's 
operations,  for  'tliat  breath  bloweth  where  it  listeth,'  but  as  the 
special  and  covenanted  sphere  of  his  regular  and  uniform  operation, 
the  place  where  he  is  pledged  to  dwell  and  to  work;  the  center 
marked  out  and  hedged  in,  whence  ever  and  again  proceeds  forth 
anew  the  work  of  human  recovery ;  the  home  where,  in  spite  of  sin 
and  imperfection,  is  ever  kept  the  picture  of  what  the  Christian  life 
is,  of  what  common  human  life  is  meant  to  be  and  can  become." — 
Lux  Mundi. 

358 


XIII. 

THE  FIRST  HISTORY  OF  THE    HOLY  SPIRIT  IN  THE 
CHURCH. 

"And  they  were  all  filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  began  to  speak 
with  other  tongues,  as  the  Spirit  gave  them  utterance."— Acts  ii.  4. 

Luke  is  a  historian.  He  has  his  method.  He 
records  facts.  He  does  not  syllogize,  he  does  not 
legislate,  he  does  not  speculate.  Prayer-meetings 
and  prisons  and  earthquakes  and  miracles  of  release 
stand  recorded  side  by  side.  Men  and  angels  and 
sorcerers  play  their  proper  roles  as  belonging  alike 
to  the  drama.  In  the  same  paragraph  appear  an 
ordinary  journey  and  a  miraculous  conversion.  In 
marvelous  ways  fishermen  and  publicans  confront 
high  priests  and  their  councils;  Jews  mingle  with 
Gentiles;  cursing  murderers  are  contrasted  with 
praying  martyrs;  missionaries  in  chains  cause  Eoman 
rulers  to  tremble,  and  spiritual  direction  marks  a 
pathAvay  transverse  to  that  of  carnal  tradition. 
Here  miracles  are  mingled  with  commonplace  mat- 
ters just  as  though  they  were  at  home  there.  They 
are  written  down  without  exclamation  points.  M3's- 
tery  becomes  history,  and  there  is  no  interrogation. 
In  the  first  church  the  supernatural  found  such  a 
congenial  home  with  the  natural  that  the  first  his- 
torian of  it  never  dreamed  of  questioning  its  rightful 

259 


260  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

residence  there.  He  simply  tells  about  it  as  Caesar 
tells  about  Gaul.  Among  the  lofty  persons  that 
move  upon  the  stage  of  this  history  the  Holy  Spirit 
has  his  place,  and  there  is  such  a  relationship  be- 
tween his  presence  and  the  course  recorded  that 
without  the  former  the  latter  is  inexplicable.  Luke 
does  not  theorize,  but  when  he  sets  before  us  a  super- 
natural course  of  history,  he  sets  before  us  at  the 
same  time  the  supernatural  person  that  reason  de- 
mands as  its  coefficient.  His  method  is  as  admirable 
as  his  material  is  wonderful. 

In  the  book  of  Acts  three  persons  above  all  others 
bear  witness  to  a  fourth.  These  three  are  the  mis- 
sionaries Peter  and  Paul,  and  their  guide,  the  Holy 
SjDirit.  Reverently,  these  three  are  one  in  bearing 
witness  to  Christ.  If  the  language  is  startling,  it  is 
intended.  Here,  absolutely,  is  where  our  study  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  church  of  Christ  must  begin. 

And  no  study  is  more  needful,  for  the  Holy  Spirit 
has  been  a  great  sufferer  in  the  house  of  his  friends. 
There  is  no  emulation,  wrath,  strife,  or  sedition 
among  Christians  for  which  the  Holy  Spirit  has  not 
been  made  to  suffer  responsibility.  There  is  no 
schismatic  or  heretic  but  claims  his  guidance.  The 
meanest  ignoramus  cloaks  his  most  trifling  and 
despicable  whims  under  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  calls 
them  revelations.  Evangelistic  follies  and  frenzies 
parade  their  shoutings,  their  shame  and  their  dis- 
order as  the  power  of  the  Spirit.  We  have  listened 
to  the  profane  man  on  the  street,  and  we  have  called 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS  261 

him  a  blasphemer,  but  we  have  not  gone  into  our 
temples  to  condemn  the  blasphemy  that  is  there, 
where  men  put  the  Holy  Spirit  himself  up  as  a 
defense  of  their  bigotry,  cruelty,  and  hatred,  and 
make  him  the  inspirer  of  their  creeds,  their  thumb- 
screws, their  mj^stic  ravings,  and  even  their  immoral- 
ities. Whittier's  terrible  arraignment,  in  his  ''Brew- 
ing of  the  Soma,"  has  a  historic  justification  too 
ample  by  far: 

"As  in  that  child-world's  early  year, 

Each  after  age  has  striven 
By  music,  incense,  vigils  drear, 
And  trance  to  bring  the  skies  more  near, 

Or  lift  men  up  to  heaven ! — 

"  Some  fever  of  the  blood  and  brain. 

Some  self-exalting  spell. 
The  scourger's  keen  delight  of  pain. 
The  Dervish  dance,  the  Orphic  strain, 

The  wild-haired  Bacchant's  yell, — 

"  And  yet  the  past  comes  round  again, 

And  new  doth  old  fulfill ; 
In  sensuous  transports  wild  as  vain 
We  brew  in  many  a  Christian  fane 

The  heathen  Soma  still ! " 

Beginning  with  the  history  of  Luke,  we  are  re- 
minded of  the  promises  of  Jesus.  The  fourteenth, 
fifteenth  and  sixteenth  chapters  of  the  Gospel 
according  to  John  are  cardinal  to  the  study  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.  In  these  chapters  he  is  most  frequently 
called  the  Comforter,  though  the  original  may  also  be 
translated  Helper,  or  Advocate,  understanding  that 
the  friendship  meaning  of  that  word  be  kept  in  it, 


262  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

and  the  forensic  meaning  be  kept  out  of  it.  Once 
the  Savior  calls  him  the  Spirit  of  truth.  In  these 
chapters  the  promised  relationship  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
to  the  apostles  is  expressed  under  four  general  heads. 

1.  **He  shall  teach  you  all  things,  and  bring  all 
things  to  your  remembrance,  whatsoever  I  have  said 
unto  you"  (John  xiv.  26). 

2.  '*  He  shall  testify  of  me"  (John  xv.  26). 

3.  *'He  shall  glorify  me"  (John  xvi.  14). 

4.  "He  will  guide  you  into  all  truth"  (John 
xvi.  13). 

The  fourth  of  these  is  practically  inclusive  of  the 
first,  and  the  second  of  the  third,  for  teaching  and 
remembrance  are  the  instruments  of  guidance,  and  to 
testify  of  Jesus,  simply  to  present  him  as  he  is,  is  the 
highest  glorification  of  him.  This  reduces  them  to 
two: 

"He  shall  testify  of  me." 

"He  shall  guide  you  into  all  truth." 

There  is  a  negative  promise  which  serves  to  empha- 
size both  of  these:  "He  shall  not  speak  of  him- 
self" (John  xvi.  13).  These  explicit  promises,  two 
positive  and  one  negative,  were  made  on  the  night 
before  the  betrayal,  and  they  have  every  possible 
prominence  that  can  be  given  to  them  by  the  solem- 
nities of  time  and  place. 

This  study  would  by  no  means  be  complete  did  it 
not  include  a  reference  to  the  promise  contained  in 
John  xvi.  8:  "When  he  is  come  he  will  convince 
the  world  of  sin,  of  righteousness,  and  of  judgment." 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  263 

This  promise  has  been  left  till  the  last  because  the 
convincing  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  depended  upon 
his  guidance  of  the  witnesses,  and  their  consequent 
testimony  regarding  Jesus.  It  is  with  clear  intuition 
of  this  that  Godet  says,  *'The  discourse  of  St.  Peter 
at  Pentecost  and  its  results  are  the  best  commentary 
on  this  text."  These  promises,  therefore,  divinely 
prescribe  the  office  and  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
Luke's  history  shows  their  fulfillment. 

)n  the  day  of  Pentecost  the  apostles  were  guided 
by  the  Holy  Spirit  in  their  speech,  for  it  is  said  that 
they  spoke  "as  the  Spirit  gave  them  utterance" 
(Acts  ii.  4).  The  Apostle  Peter's  sermon  was  there- 
fore Spirit-guided,  and  forever  as  we  read  it  we  feel 
that  it  is  replete  with  testimony  concerning  Christ. 
The  apostle's  answer  to  inquiring  sinners  is  likewise 
Spirit-guided,  and  his  command  to  them  to  repent 
and  be  baptized  in  the  name  of  Jesus  glorifies  Christ 
by  making  the  very  imagery  of  his  death  and  resur- 
rection the  very  symbol  of  conversion  and  salvation. 
The  apostles  showed  their  painful  need  of  guid- 
ance by  the  last  question  they  proposed  to  Jesus 
before  his  ascension.  "Wilt  thou  at  this  time 
restore  again  the  kingdom  to  Israel? "  O  carnal- 
minded  men!  Your  mission  is  not  to  restore  the 
kingdom  to  Israel,  but  to  testify  of  Jesus!  You 
have  nothing  to  do  to  fight  Kome,  but  to  preach 
the  Gospel !  With  such  questions  foremost  you  are 
not  fit  for  the  work!  Wait!  "You  shall  receive 
power  after  that  the  Holy  Spirit  is  come  upon  you. 


264  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

and  you  shall  be  witnesses  unto  me  both  in  Jerusa- 
lem, and  in  Judaea,  and  in  Samaria,  and  unto  the 
uttermost  parts  of  the  earth"  (Acts  i.  6-8).  Given 
the  Jewish,  carnal-minded  apostles  on  the  one  hand; 
on  the  other,  the  purely  spiritual  products  of  Pente- 
cost; then  cancel  from  the  record  the  agency  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  and  such  a  gap  remains  as  the  intellect 
refuses  to  sanction.  Such  fruit  does  not  grow  from 
such  trees.  Cause  and  effect  are  not  properly 
matched.  Such  writing  would  seem  mythical.  But 
the  miracle  that  the  intellect  demands  the  record  pre- 
sents, and  the  writing  immediately  assumes  the  form 
of  history.  The  Holy  Spirit,  personal,  intelligent, 
powerful,  is  present,  and  this  miracle  makes  all  else 
natural.  The  apostles  forget  Israel;  they  remember 
Christ  and  preach  him;  they  had  trembled  on  the 
night  of  his  betrayal,  but  they  are  heroes  now ;  they 
declare  courageously  and  mightily  the  resurrection  and 
the  Lordship  of  Jesus;  their  hearers  are  convicted 
of  sin,  of  righteousness,  and  of  judgment;  and  the 
young  church  comes  forth  in  the  strength  and  beauty 
of  a  spiritual  faith,  a  spiritual  love,  and  a  spiritual 
hope.  The  Holy  Spirit  is  logical.  Myths  and  "  cun- 
ningly devised  fables"  do  not  fabricate  causes  that 
are  adequate  to  effects  like  this,  and  interlock  prom- 
ises with  their  fulfillment  like  this.  - 

When  Peter  gave  his  answer  to  .Annas  the  high 
priest  (iv.  5-12)  he  was  filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit. 
His  testimony  was  wholly  for  Jesus,  and  he  exalted 
him  to  an  exclusive   place,  saying,  *'  There  is  none 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS  265 

other  name  under  heaven  given  among  men  whereby 
we  must  be  saved."  In  the  praise  meeting  that  fol- 
lowed the  acquittal  (iv.  31),  '*  they  were  all  filled  with 
the  Holy  Spirit,  and  they  spake  the  word  of  God  with 
boldness." 

The  presence  and  the  presidency  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
in  the  church  is  assumed  by  the  Apostle  Peter  when 
he  accuses  Ananias  of  lying  to  the  Holy  Spirit  (v.  3). 

Men  chosen  to  prominence  in  the  church  were 
expected  to  be  "full  of  the  Holy  Spirit."  Stephen 
the  martyr  was  pre-eminently  such  a  man  (vi.  3-5). 
They  were  not  able  to  resist  "  the  wisdom  and  spirit 
with  which  he  spake."  The  climax  of  his  accusation 
against  his  people  was  that  they  "  always  resisted  the 
Holy  Spirit;  "  that  therefore  they  had  persecuted 
the  prophets,  and  had  slain  Jesus,  making  themselves 
his  betrayers  and  murderers  (vii.  51-53). 

Undoubtedly  there  were  visible  and  audible  signs 
of  the  presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  This  was  the 
rule  and  not  the  exception.  The  first  Christians 
knew  when  the  Holy  Spirit  fell  upon  them 
(viii.  14-20).  There  was  something  to  be  seen  and 
heard  that  Simon  wanted  to  buy,  and  his  groveling 
mistake  gave  his  name  to  the  world  as  a  synonym  for 
all  filthy,  lucrative  traffic  in  holy  things. 

The  mission  of  Ananias  to  Saul  was  not  simply  to 
baptize  him,  but  also  **that  he  might  receive  his 
sight,  and  be  filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit."  Pres- 
ently this  Spirit-filled  man  *'  preached  Christ  in  the 
synagogues,  that  he  is  the  Son  of  God,"  and  thus 


266  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

was  performed  the  "  office  work  "  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  the  glorification  of  Jesus  (ix.  17-20). 

When  the  churches  in  Judaaa  and  Galilee  and 
Samaria  ''walked  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  and  the 
comfort  of  the  Holy  Sj)irit,"  they  were  multipiied 
and  edified  (ix.  31). 

The  Holy  Spirit  fell  upon  Cornelius  and  his  house- 
hold before  their  baptism.  Thus  he  guided  the 
Apostle  Peter  and  the  church  into  the  transforming 
truth  that  the  Gentiles  were  to  be  received  just  as  the 
Jews  were,  simply  upon  the  basis  of  the  presentation 
of  Christ  and  of  faith  in  him.  "  What  was  I  that  I 
could  withstand  God?"  said  Peter  afterward  in  mak- 
ing his  defense  to  his  Jewish  brethren  in  Jerusalem 
(x.  44-48,  and  xi.  15-18.  See  also  essay  on  ''  The 
First  Gentile  Convert")  .  In  the  first  council 
(xv.  6-11)  this  fact  was  used  by  Peter  as  an  unan- 
swerable argument. 

Of  Barnabas  it  is  said,  "He  was  a  good  man,  and 
full  of  the  Holy  Spirit  and  of  faith,"  indicating  that 
the  Holy  Spirit  finds  hospitality  where  goodness  and 
faith  also  dwell.  Under  the  ministry  of  this  man  in 
the  Gentile  Church  of  Antioch  "  much  people  was 
added  unto  the  Lord."  No  doubt  this  good  and 
faithful  man  was  Spirit-led  also  when  he  did  so  wise 
a  thing  as  to  seek  out  Saul  and  make  him  an 
associate  in  his  ministry  (xi.  22-27). 

In  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  Acts  there  is  the 
record  of  a  new  movement.  The  camp  of  the  Lord 
with  its  pillar  of  fire  must  now  move  forward  into 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  267 

the  darkness  of  pagan  lands.  The  church  must 
become  a  foreign  missionary  society.  The  historian 
is  very  emphatic  in  the  part  he  assigns  to  the  Holy 
Spirit  in  this  movement.  "  The  Holy  Spirit  said, 
Separate  me  Barnabas  and  Saul  for  the  work  where- 
unto  I  have  called  them."  Here  the  Holy  Spirit, 
fulfilling  his  "office  work"  in  guiding  the  church 
and  glorifying  Jesus,  calls  the  men  and  commands 
the  church  to  send  them  out.  But,  as  though  this 
were  not  explicit  enough,  the  matter  is  restated  in  the 
fourth  verse  in  language  as  plain  as  language  can  be. 
"So  they  being  sent  forth  by  the  Holy  Spirit 
departed  unto  Seleucia;  and  from  thence  they  sailed 
to  Cyprus." 

From  this  time  the  Apostle  Paul  becomes  the 
leading  character  in  the  book,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  is 
his  closest  companion.  Filled  with  the  Spirit,  he  re- 
buked Elymas,  the  sorcerer  (xiii.  9-11.)  Forbidden 
by  the  Spirit,  he  refrained  from  a  missionary  journey 
through  Northern  Asia  Minor,  and  soon  discovered 
that  the  Spirit  was  guiding  him,  by  the  help  of  the 
"Man  of  Macedonia,"  into  Europe  (xvi.  6-10). 
Thus  he  was  led  to  preach  in  Philippi,  Thessalonica, 
Berea,  Athens  and  Corinth.  At  Ephesus  he  found 
disciples  of  John,  to  whom  he  imparted  the  Holy 
Spirit,  after  they  were  baptized  in  the  name  of  Jesus. 
"  And  they  spake  with  tongues  and  prophesied " 
(xix.  1-7).  He  would  not  be  dissuaded  from  going 
to  Jerusalem,  though  the  Holy  Spirit  assured  him 
that  in  that  city,  as  in  every  other,  bonds  and  afflic- 


268  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

tions  awaited  him  (xx.  22,  23).  He  reminded  the 
elders  of  the  church  in  Ephesus  that  the  Holy  Spirit 
had  made  them  overseers  of  the  flock^(xx.  28).  In 
his  last  recorded  speech,  and  therefore,  so  far  as  this 
record  goes,  his  last  meeting  and  parting  with  his 
Jewish  brethren,  he  charged  them  in  the  name  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  quoting  Isaiah,  of  blindness  and  deaf- 
ness, and  hardness  of  heart  (xxviii.  16-28). ^  Still  one 
other  noteworthy  referehx)e~^airns~lts  place  among 
the  above.  When  the  Church  in  council  rendered 
its  decision  as  to  the  status  of  the  Gentiles  it  claimed 
to  be  Spirit-guided,  saying,  as  an  introduction  to  the 
decision,  "  It  seemed  good  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  to 
us     ...     "  (XV. 28). 

Having  collated  the  Scriptures  and  summarized  the 
history  pertinent  to  the  theme,  it  remains  to  offer 
some  reflections  and  leave  the  reader  to  judge  wheth- 
er they  are  legitimate  conclusions. 

The  Holy  Spirit  was  the  guiding  genius  of  the 
church.  He  made  it  cosmopolitan,  and  he  made  it 
missionary. 

His  was  the  presence,  often  but  not  always,  of  an 
audible,  visible,  intelligible  intelligence.  This  pres- 
ence, called  metaphorically  the  baptism  of  the  Spirit, 
was  not  confined  to  the  apostles,  nor  even  to  the 
first  Gentiles  in  the  home  of  Cornelius.  The  promise 
of  "the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit"  (ii.  38),  must 
upon  any  fair  construction  refer  to  this  presence. 
To  the  re-baptized  disciples  of  John  in  Ephesus 
was    granted  this   presence    (xix.  1-6).      The   study 


STUDIES  IN  Acfrs  269 

upon  this  point  may  be  carried  forward  into  the 
epistolary  writings,  especially  the  first  letter  to  the 
Corinthians. 

This  presence  was  conditioned  upon  the  preaching 
of  the  Gospel,  and  might  either  precede  or  succeed, 
but  never  supersede,  baptism. 

The  book  of  Acts  gives  us  no  indication  of  an  in- 
tention on  the  part  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  resign  his 
office  in  favor  of  a  written  word.  If  there  was  such 
an  intention,  or  such  a  resignation,  the  record  of  it 
must  be  found  elsewhere. 

The  apostles  had  no  written  word  by  which  they 
could  be  guided  in  the  building  of  a  cosmopolitan, 
missionary  church.  The  New  Testament  had  yet  to 
be  created,  and  to  be  created  by  them  under  the 
direction  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  Old  Testament 
would  not  do,  for  its  cult  is  neither  cosmopolitan  nor 
missionary.  The  narrow  limits  of  its  legalism  were 
a  constant  o:ffset  to  the  aspirations  of  its  prophet- 
ism.  But  the  Holy  Spirit  supplied  the  place  of  a 
book,  and  how  much  more  one  dares  not  attempt  to 
say.  Nevertheless,  Christians  can  never  cease  to 
remember  with  gratitude  that  they  have  from  the 
Holy  Spirit  while  he  dwelt  audibly  and  visibly  in  the 
church,  the  gift  of  a  collection  of  books,  which  we 
call  the  New  Testament,  and  which,  as  distinguished 
from  the  Mosaic  Bible,  is  the  Christian  Bible. 

Revelation  was  the  work  of  Jesus;  inspiration  was 
that  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  **  He  shall  not  speak  of 
himself.     He  shall  take  of  mine,  and  shall   show  it 


270  STUDIES  IN  ACTS 

unto  you."  The  quickening  of  the  memory  of  the 
apostles,  the  fitting  of  their  words  to  the  needs  of 
the  hour,  the  adjustment  of  men  and  measures  to 
the  accomplishment  of  ends  that  were  desirable,  as 
in  the  appointment  of  the  seven  deacons  and  the 
sending  out  of  Paul  and  Barnabas,  are  indicative  of 
the  whole  tenor  of  his  inspirational  work.  Jesus 
himself  revealed  himself  to  Saul  of  Tarsus;  after 
the  revelation  the  Holy  Spirit  became  Saul's  helper. 
This  placed  him  upon  the  same  basis  of  revelation 
and  inspiration  that  belonged  to   the  other  apostles. 

It  is  evident  that  the  relation  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to 
us  cannot  be  identical  with  that  to  the  apostles.  He 
cannot  quicken  our  memories  with  the  words  of 
Jesus  as  he  did  theirs,  for  Jesus  has  not  spoken  to  us 
as  to  them.  He  cannot  use  us  in  an  evidential  way 
as  he  did  them,  for  we  have  never  seen  and  heard 
Jesus.  It  may  be  for  this  reason  that  there  are  not 
given  to  us  the  extraordinary  powers  of  the  Spirit, 
such  as  healing  and  speaking  with  tongues. 

The  immediate  conversion  of  sinners  was  not  the 
work  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  That  would  be  mysticism. 
But  through  men  to  testify  to  the  man  Christ,  and 
through  men  to  glorify  the  man  Christ,  and  through 
men  to  take  of  the  things  of  Christ  and  show  them 
to  the  world,— this  was  his  work.  Christ  is  the  reve- 
lation of  truth.  It  is  truth  that  convicts.  It  is  evi- 
dence that  substantiates  truth.  Along  this  rational 
highway  the  Holy  Spirit  guided  the  apostles  and  the 
first  church  in  the  work  of  evangelization. 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  271 

Does  the  Holy  Spirit  abide  in  the  church  to-day, 
and  does  he  make  his  home  with  Christians  individu- 
ally? We  do  not  work  miracles;  we  do  not  proph- 
esy; we  do  not  speak  with  tongues.  But, — "The 
fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love,  joy,  peace,  longsuffering, 
gentleness,  goodness,  faith,  meekness,  temperance. '> 
Have  we  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit?  This  only  is  our 
oapital  question. 

"  No  more  from  rocky  Horeb  the  smitten  waters  gush; 
Fallen  is  Bethel's  ladder,  quenched  is  the  burning  bush. 
The  jewels  of  the  Urim  and  Thummim  all  are  dim; 
The  fire  has  left  the  altar,  the  sign  the  teraphim. 
No  more  in  ark  or  hill  or  grove,  the  Holiest  abides  ; 
Not  in  the  scroll's  dead  letter,  the  eternal  secret  hides. 
Have  ye  not  still  my  witness  within  yourselves  alway? 
My  hand  that  on  th3  keys  of  life  for  bliss  or  bale  I  lay? 
Still  in  perpetual  judgment,  I  hold  assize  within, 
With  sure  reward  of  holiness,  and  dread  rebuke  of  sin. 
My  Gerizim  and  Ebal  are  in  each  human  soul ; 
The  still,  small  voice  of  blessing,  and  Sinai's  thunder  roll. 
The  world  will  have  its  idols,  and  flesh  and  sense  their  sign  ; 
But  the  blinded  eyes  shall  open,  and  the  grossest  ear  be  fine. 
What  if  the  vision*  tarry?    God's  time  is  always  best ; 
The  true  light  shall  be  witnessed,  the  Christ  within  confessed." 

Even  so.  *'  The  Christ  within!"  And  no  less  also 
the  Christ  without;  the  historic  Christ;  the  risen, 
the  ascended,  the  now  regnant  Christ  shall  be  con- 
fessed. And  that  through  the  witness  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  also  historic,  and  speaking  overmore  as  Peter 
spoke  on  Pentecost,  as  Paul  spoke  in  Antioch,  in 
Athens,  in  Corinth,  and  in  Rome. 


XIV. 
EXCURSUS.      THE   APOSTLE    PAUL  AS   ORGAN- 
IZER  AND   UNIFIER 


"Nothing  is  essential  to  the  conversion  of  the  world  but  the 
union  and  co-operation  of  Christians.  Nothing  is  essential  to  the 
union  of  Christians  but  the  apostles'  teaching  or  testimony. 
Neither  truth  alone  nor  union  alone  is  sufficient  to  subdue  the  unbe- 
lieving nations.  But  truth  and  union  combined  are  omnipotent. 
They  are  omnipotent,  for  God  is  in  them  and  with  them,  and  has 
consecrated  and  blessed  them  for  this  very  purpose." — A.  Campbell, 

Christian  System. 

374 


XIV. 

EXCURSUS.     THE  APOSTLE  PAUL  AS  ORGANIZER 
AND  UNIFIER. 

"Now  after  many  years  I  came  to  bring  alms  to  my  nation,  and 
offerings." — Acts  xxiv.  17. 

The  Apostle  Paul's  emergence  in  history  is  as  an 
organizer  and  leader  of  men.  At  the  first  mention 
of  his  name  there  is  a  recognition  of  his  primacy  in 
persecution.  '*The  witnesses  laid  down  their  clothes 
at  a  young  man's  feet,  whose  name  was  Saul."  A 
moment  later  the  historian,  speaking  still  further  of 
the  martyrdom  of  Stephen,  says,  '*And  Saul  was 
consenting  to  his  death."  And  still  a  moment  later, 
"As  for  Saul,  he  made  havoc  of  the  church,  entering 
into  every  house,  and  haling  men  and  women,  com- 
mitted them  to  prison."  There  for  a  time  in  solitary 
prominence  of  blood-stained  activity,  with  strangely 
mournful,  and  even  frightful  and  terrible  introduc- 
tion, Luke  leaves  his  hero  standing. 

No  less  than  nine  chapters,  and  at  least  twelve 
passages  of  the  New  Testament,  bear  witness  to  the 
thoroughness  and  the  terror  of  his  organized  persecu- 
tions. Aside  from  him,  no  other  persistent  and  sys- 
tematic persecutor  is  brought  before  us.  It  is  well  to 
note  a  number  of  these  passages,  for  they  have  not 
received  the  attention  they  deserve  in  making  up  our 

275 


276  STUDIES    IN   ACTS 

estimate  of  Paul's  character  and  influence.  The 
word  havoc,  used  in  one  of  the  passages  quoted 
above,  occurs  nowhere  else  in  the  New  Testament, 
and  Farrar  tells  us  that  in  the  Septuagint  and  in 
classic  Greek  it  is  applied  to  the  wild  boars  that 
uproot  a  vineyard.  In  close  connection  with  this 
word,  so  graphic  of  destruction,  it  is  said  that  "he 
entered  into  every  house,  and  haling  men  and 
women,  committed  them  to  prison,"  indicating  an 
organized  and  systematic,  as  well  as  a  relentless,  per- 
secution. In  the  first  verses  of  the  ninth  chapter  of 
Acts,  there  is  the  record  of  his  "  threatenings  and 
slaughter,"  which  he  is  described  as  ''breathing 
•out,"  and  also  of  his  plan  for  an  authorized  and 
organized  campaign  of  persecution  among  all  the 
synagogues  of  Damascus.  In  both  these  passages  it 
is  especially  noted  by  Luke  that  he  did  not  spare 
women  even.  His  fame  as  a  persecutor  had  pre- 
ceded him  to  Damascus,  for  Ananias  says,  "I  have 
heard  by  many  of  this  man,  how  much  evil  he  hath 
done  to  thy  saints  at  Jerusalem;  and  here  he  hath 
authority  from  the  chief  priests  to  bind  all  that  call 
on  thy  name." 

The  apostle  himself,  both  in  his  speeches  and  his 
letters,  has  told  us  of  his  persecutions  with  such 
brevity  and  emphasis  as  are  indicative  of  painful 
recollections,  but  also  in  such  terms  as  to  show  sys- 
tem and  thoroughness.  In  Acts  xxii.  4  he  sa3's:  "I 
persecuted  this  way  unto  the  death,  binding  and 
delivering  into  prisons  both  men  and  women."     In 


STUDIES    IN   ACTS  277 

chapter  xxvi.  10,  11  he  says:  "Many  of  the  saints 
did  I  shut  up  in  prison,  having  received  authority 
from  the  chief  priests;  and  when  they  were  put  to 
death,  I  gave  my  voice  against  them.  And  I  pun- 
ished them  oft  in  every  synagogue,  and  compelled 
them  to  blaspheme;  and  being  exceedingly  mad 
against  them,  I  persecuted  them  even  unto  strange 
cities."  In  I.  Cor.  xv.  9  he  calls  himself  the  least  of 
the  apostles,  because  he  "persecuted  the  church  of 
God."  In  Gal.  i.  13  he  says  that  "beyond  measure 
be  persecuted  the  church  of  God  and  wasted  it." 
And  in  I.  Tim.  i.  13  he  refers  to  his  former  life  in 
language  of  almost  unrestrained  self-condemnation 
as  having  been  "a  blasphemer,  and  a  persecutor,  and 
an  insulter  in  word  and  deed." 

There  is  every  indication  that  this  man's  work  of 
persecution  was  not  spasmodic  and  haphazard,  but 
that  it  was  a  well  concerted  and  definitely  directed 
plan  for  the  extermination  of  Christianity,  and  there 
appears  in  it  all  the  genius  of  leadership,  of  action, 
of  organization,  and  of  direction.  It  is  interesting  to 
speculate  upon  the  probable  history  of  the  young 
church  had  this  man  not  been  converted.  It  seems 
not  too  much  to  say  that  the  weight  of  this  one  man's 
influence,  as  thrown  into  the  scale  for  or  against 
Christ,  meant  all  but  all  of  life  or  death  to  the  cause 
of  Christ. 

It  is  impossible  to  say  how  much  Paul  had  to  do 
with  the  organization  and  inception  of  the  first  for- 
eign  missionary  enterprise   of   the   Antioch   church. 


278  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

The  Holy  Spirit  is  represented  as  taking  the  initia- 
tive, and  saying,  *' Separate  me  Barnabas  and  Saul 
for  the  work  whereunto  I  have  appointed  them." 
Instruction  and  inspiration  are  closely  correlated  in 
the  Gospel,  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  the  teach- 
ing of  Barnabas  and  Saul  had  prepared  the  church 
for  the  movement  authorized  by  the  Holy  Spirit. 
However,  it  is  a  fact  that  Paul  Avas  a  leader  in  the 
work  from  the  first,  and  that  before  the  evangeliza- 
tion of  the  island  of  Cyprus  was  completed,  he 
became  the  leader  in  it.  The  moment  in  which  his 
name  was  changed  from  Saul  to  Paul  fixes  the  date 
of  his  recognized  leadership  in  the  evangelistic  move- 
ments of  the  church  (xiii.  9). 

There  is  a  definite  statement  to  the  eifect  that  the 
second  missionary  journey  was  proposed  by  Paul 
(xv.  36).  After  his  disagreement  with  Barnabas,  he 
chose  Silas,  "and  departed,  being  recommended  by 
the  brethren  to  the  grace  of » God.  And  he  went 
through  Syria  and  Cilicia  confirming  the  churches." 
The  choice  of  Silas  is  significant,  and  has  a  bearing 
on  the  Jewish-Gentile  controversy,  as  we  shall  see 
below. 

The  third  missionary  journey  had  its  beginning  as 
described  in  Acts  xviii.  23.  Paul  departed  from 
Antioch,  "and  went  through  all  the  country  of 
Galatia  and  Phrygia  in  order,  strengthening  all  the 
disciples."  During  this  journey  he  did  his  great 
work   at   Ephesus,   passed    through   Macedonia    and 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS  279 

Greece,  and  returned  through  Macedonia  to  Troas  on 
his  way  to  Jerusalem. 

These  journeys  are  so  briefly  narrated  that  upon 
casual  reading  we  by  no  means  get  the  full  impress  of 
their  significance.  We  should  picture  to  ourselves 
an  evangelistic  movement  extending  from  Jerusalem 
and  Antioch  in  Syria  through  Cilicia,  Lycaonia, 
Pisidia,  Galatia,  Caria,  Lydia,  Mysia,  Macedonia, 
Achaia,  and  Italy,  and  the  islands  of  Cyprus  and 
Crete;  as  the  chief  figure  in  the  personnel  of  this 
movement,  Paul,  supporting  himself  a  part  of  the 
time  at  least  by  daily  labor,  yet  preaching  and  lec- 
turing constantly  in  schools  or  synagogues  or  his  own 
private  house;  selecting  and  training  young  men, 
such  as  Timothy  and  Titus  and  Epaphras  and  Onesi- 
mus*and  Aristarchus  and  Tychicus  and  Trophimus, 
and  sending  them  out  as  messengers  and  evangelists 
and  overseers,  thus  taking  upon  himself  "the  care  of 
all  the  churches;"  through  amanuenses  and  messen- 
gers posting  to  the  churches  of  his  creation  imper- 
ishable letters;  suffering  constant  and  many  times 
perilous  persecution;  now  stoned,  now  imprisoned, 
now  and  again  fronting  furious  mobs,  and  now  and 
again  shipwrecked;  organizing  churches;  ordaining 
elders;  restraining  lawlessness;  proclaiming  liberty; 
meanwhile  not  forgetting  *'the  poor  saints  that  were 
in  Jerusalem,"  but  intent  upon  carrying  out  in  their 
behalf  a  general  and  thoroughly  systematized  series 
of  collections  among  the  churches  of  Galatia,  Mace- 
donia, and  Achaia;  all  the  while  also  defending  the 


280  STUDIES    IN   ACTS 

Gospel  from  the  attacks  of  Judaizers  on  the  one 
hand,  and  on  the  other  from  the  most  imminent  dan- 
ger of  internal  discord — all  this  and  more  must  go  to 
make  up  an  adequate  summary  of  that  majestic 
movement,  which  had  Christ  for  its  inspiration,  and 
the  Apostle  Paul  for  the  first  of  its  human  agencies. 
To  many  a  church  other  than  that  in  Corinth  he 
might  have  written,  saying,  "Though  you  have  ten 
thousand  instructors  in  Christ,  yet  have  ye  not  many 
fathers;  for  in  Christ  Jesus  I  have  begotten  you 
through  the  Gospel.  Wherefore  I  beseech  you,  be 
ye  followers  of  me." 

In  the  organization  of  churches  the  Apostle  Paul 
seems  to  have  been  guided  by  three  principles. 
There  was  first,  the  historic  or  conservative  prin- 
ciple, viz.,  his  regard  for  the  constitution  of  the 
Jewish  synagogues  which  were  to  be  found  in  every 
considerable  city.  Upon  the  synagogue  plan  the 
Mother  Church  in  Jerusalem  was  modeled,  and  the 
Gentile  churches  held  continuity  with  it  by  being 
similarly  organized.  This  was  a  point  not  to  be 
despised  as  regarded  the  question  of  unity.  The 
official  functions  of  the  elders  (otherwise  presbyters 
or  bishops),  and  of  the  deacons  or  ministers,  were 
derived  from  the  synagogue,  the  elders  of  the  one 
corresponding  to  the  elders  of  the  other,  and  the 
deacons  of  the  one  to  the  almoners  of  the  other.  In 
the  synagogue  there  was  also  a  **  legate  of  the  con- 
gregation," or  *' leader  of  divine  worship,"  whose 
reproduction   we   seem   to    have   in    *'the    angel    of 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS  281 

the  church,"  the  officer  addressed  in  the  letters  to 
the  churches  in  the  book  of  Revelation.  Upon  their 
first  missionary  journey  the  apostles  Paul  and  Barna- 
bas took  care  that  elders  were  appointed  in  every 
church  (Acts  xiv.  23).  Paul,  having  left  Titus  in 
Crete,  instructed  him  to  appoint  elders  in  every  city 
(Titus  i.  5).  In  these  passages  nothing  is  said  about 
deacons,  a  significant  silence,  surely.  Perhaps  that 
office  was  not  considered  immediately  essential  to  the 
young  churches.  However,  Paul,  in  writing  to  the 
Philippian  church,  addresses  the  "bishops  (elders) 
and  deacons;"  he  also  instructs  Timothy  as  to  the 
character  of  the  men  who  should  be  appointed  to 
this  office  (I.  Tim.  iii.  12). 

It  is  a  matter  of  gvevt  moment  that  the  synagogue, 
rather  than  the  temple,  became  the  model  of  the  first 
churches.  The  latter,  with  its  sacrificial  service  and 
sacerdotal  orders,  drops  entirely  out  of  the  problem, 
and  as  a  factor  in  the  organized  work  of  Christianity 
seems  to  have  been  as  entirely  discarded  as  though  it 
had  never  existed.  There  is  never  in  the  record  of 
any  Christian  church  of  apostolic  origin  the  slightest 
intimation  of  anything  like  the  old  altar  forms  of 
worship,  and  the  priestly  class  of  the  Mosaic  cult  is 
left  absolutely  behind  in  the  transition  from  the  one 
dispensation  to  the  other.  No  apostolic  Christian 
ever  posed  as  a  priest  except  in  the  sense  that  they 
all,  from  the  least  to  the  greatest  of  them,  were  both 
"kings  and  priests  unto  God."  All  priestly  func- 
tions, aside  from  these  most  general  ones  that  per- 


282  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

tain  to  the  whole  body  of  believers,  were  forever 
gathered  up  into  his  person  who  died  for  us,  and 
who  by  reason  of  his  resurrection  is  **  Priest  forever 
after  the  order  of  Melchisedec,"  that  is,  after  an 
order  wholly  independent  and  unique.  The  claim  of 
any  professed  Christian  that  he  is  more  priest  than 
another,  is  an  ignorant  or  an  impudent  usurpation 
of  Christ's  office,  and  likewise  an  ignorant  or  an  im- 
pudent blasphemy  against  his  blood-bought  mediator- 
ship.  There  were  no  altar  forms  of  worship,  there- 
fore, nor  was  there  any  priestly  class  in  the  churches 
organized  by  Paul.  In  the  Pauline  dispensation  the 
brother  who  "is  apt  to  teach,"  or  to  dispense  alms, 
has  forever  taken  the  place  of  the  skillful  slayer  of 
beasts,  the  sprinkler  of  water  and  blood  and  ashes. 
In  the  second  place,  Paul  was  governed  by  the  prin- 
ciple of  liberty  under  the  direction  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  The  Pauline  churches  were  far  from  being 
limited  in  their  organization  to  the  synagogue  model. 
The  new  wine  of  the  Spirit  could  not  be  imprisoned 
in  the  old  bottles.  Two  lists  of  functions  within  the 
church,  whether  official  or  charismatic,  are  given  by 
Paul,  one  in  I.  Cor.  xii.  28,  and  the  other  in  Eph. 
iv.  11.  These  lists  are  not  in  entire  correspondence, 
and  therefore  the  apostle  must  not  be  considered  as 
treating  the  subject  from  a  technical,  much  less  a 
legalistic  standpoint.  Indeed  such  treatment  would 
seem  to  be  foreign  to  the  genius  of  Christianity,  for 
where  the  Spirit  is  there  is  liberty  rather  than 
legality.     In  the  first  of  these  lists  it  is  hard  to  say 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  283 

where  the  official  functions  end  and  the  charismatic 
ones  begin,  and  perhaps  we  do  not  need  to  attempt  a 
rigid  distinction.  Perhaps  we  get  a  better  view  of 
the  official  freedom  and  spiritual  genius  of  Chris- 
tianity by  leaving  them  as  the  apostle  has  left  them. 

"God  hath  set  some  in  the  church,  first  apostles, 
secondarily  prophets,  thirdly  teachers,  after  that  mir- 
acles, then  gifts  of  healings,  helps  (^.  e.,  functions  of 
the  diaconite;  Variorum  Bible),  governments  (z.  e., 
functions  of  the  presbyterate ;  Variorum  Bible), 
diversities  of  tongues"  (I.  Cor.  xii.  28). 

"And  he  gave  some,  apostles;  and  some,  prophets; 
and  some,  evangelists;  and  some,  pastors  and  teach- 
ers" (Eph.  iv.  11). 

As  intimated  above,  our  present  interest  in  these 
lists  lies  in  the  fact  of  their  differences.  Neither 
includes  all  the  offices  or  gifts  of  the  other,  and  we 
are  led  to  this  conclusion,  viz.,  that  there  were  some 
offices  and  gifts  in  the  Corinthian  church  that  were 
unknown  to  the  Ephesian  church,  and  vice  versa; 
or  this,  viz.,  that  the  Apostle  Paul  did  not  care  to  be 
technically  exact  in  his  enumeration.  In  either  case 
there  is  an  indication  of  liberty  rather  than  of  legal- 
ism, and  in  the  former  of  diversity  in  unity. 

Sabatier,  in  his  work  entitled,  "The  Apostle 
Paul,"  has  the  following  suggestive  paragraph  bear- 
ing upon  this  point.  "All  development  implies 
variety;  and  hence  the  apostle  perceives  and 
acknowledges  in  the  church  diverse  offices,  gifts, 
and   ministries    (I.  Cor.  xii.  4).     To    each   of    these 


284  STUDIES    IN    ACTS 

separate  gifts  he  allows  free  and  full  development; 
and  through  them  the  wealth  of  life  in  the  church  is 
manifested.  But  on  the  other  hand  these  different 
charisms  proceed  from  one  and  the  same  spirit 
(I.  Cor.  xii.  11).  And  with  love  as  their  common 
inspiration,  all  tend  to  the  same  goal,  the  perfecting 
of  the  whole  body  of  the  church.  So  the  unity  of 
the  church  is,  in  the  first  instance,  broken  up  and 
expanded  into  a  rich  variety;  but  this  in  turn  is 
absorbed  into  the  supreme  unity.  Such  is  the  or- 
ganic and  harmonious  development  of  the  life  of 
the  church." 

In  the  third  place,  Paul  was  governed  by  the  prin- 
ciple of  expediency  in  many  matters  pertaining  to 
organization.  No  doubt  it  was  expedient  that  Titus 
should  be  left  in  Crete  to  set  in  order  the  things  that 
were  wanting  (Titus  i.  5);  to  ordain  elders  in  every 
city;  and  to  exhort  and  rebuke  with  all  authority 
(ii.  15).  This  seems  to  indicate  an  office  distinct 
from  any  yet  named,  and  so  far  as  Paul's  writings  go 
it  is  left  without  a  name.  Was  Titus  the  overseer  of 
all  Crete,  and  was  he  then  a  bishop  over  the  congre- 
gational bishops,  and  is  there  here  a  precedent  for 
the  episcopal  form  of  church  polity?  The  position 
of  Timothy  in  Ephesus  is  similar  to  that  of  Titus  in 
Crete.  When  Paul  went  into  Macedonia  he  found  it 
expedient  that  Timothy  should  abide  in  Ephesus 
(I.  Tim.  i.  3);  that  he  should  have  general  super- 
vision of  doctrine;  of  the  appointing  of  elders  and 
deacons   (I.  Tim.   iii.),  and  of    the    salaries   of   eld- 


STUDIES   IN  ACTS  285 

ers  (I.  Tim.  v.  17),  granting  double  pay  or  support 
(honor  is  the  euphemism  used  by  Paul)  to  those  who 
should  rule  well ;  and  with  authority  also  to  rebuke 
and  exhort  under  certain  limitations.  Intense  in- 
terest attaches  to  the  position  and  functions  of  these 
two  men.  But  whatever  conclusions  we  may  come  to 
regarding  them  there  is  no  record  of  similar  officials 
having  been  sent  into  other  regions  or  cities,  such  as 
Macedonia  or  Achaia,  or  Philippi  or  Corinth.  It  is 
argued,  therefore,  that  in  the  Apostle  Paul's  judg- 
ment it  must  have  been  simply  a  matter  of  expedi- 
ency that  these  men  should  be  stationed  permanently, 
the  one  in  Crete,  the  other  in  Ephesus,  with  func- 
tions superior  to  those  of  the  elders  of  the  congrega- 
tions; and  that,  on  the  contrary,  in  his  judgment  the 
exigencies  in  other  churches  or  districts  did  not  call 
for  such  an  expedient  in  the  way  of  organization  and 
government. 

Another  example  of  the  rule  of  expediency  in 
church  organization  is  found  in  the  office  of  the 
Pair  onus  or  Patrona,  not  many  notices  of  which  are 
given  us  in  the  New  Testament.  There  is  one  clear 
case,  however,  if  the  interpretation  of  Kurtz  may  be 
relied  on.  In  Rom.  xvi.  1  and  2  we  have  the  follow- 
ing language:  "I  commend  unto  you  Phebe  our 
sister,  who  is  a  servant  of  the  church  which  is  at 
Cenchrea;  that  ye  receive  her  in  the  Lord  as  becom- 
eth  saints,  and  that  ye  assist  her  in  whatsoever  busi- 
ness she  hath  need  of  you;  for  she  hath  been  a 
succourer   (Protectress;    Variorum  Bible)  of    many, 


286  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

and  of  myself  also."  Kurtz  in  his  Church  History 
characterizes  this  as  *'  a  peculiar  kind  of  ministry 
which  must  soon  have  developed  as  something  indis- 
pensable to  the  Christian  churches  throughout  the 
Hellenic  and  Roman  regions,  so  deeply  grounded  in 
the  social  life  of  classical  antiquity  was  the  part 
played  by  the  patron.  Freedmen,  foreigners,  pro- 
letarii  could  not  in  themselves  hold  property,  and 
had  no  claim  on  the  protection  of  the  laws, 
but  had  to  be  associated  as  Olientes  with  a 
Patronus  or  Patrona^  who  in  difficult  circumstances 
would  afford  them  counsel,  protection,  support  and 
defense.  As  in  the  Greek  and  Roman  associations 
for  worship  this  relationship  had  long  before  taken 
root,  and  was  one  of  the  things  that  contributed  most 
materially  to  their  prosperity,  so  also  in  the  Christian 
churches  the  need  for  recognizing  and  giving  effect 
to  it  became  all  the  more  urgent  in  proportion  as  the 
number  of  members  increased  for  whom  such  sup- 
port was  necessary.  Phebe  is  warmly  commended  as 
such  a  Christian  Patrona  (Protectress)  at  Cenchrea, 
the  port  of  Corinth,  among  whose  numerous  clients 
the  apostle  himself  is  mentioned.  Many  inscrip- 
tions in  the  Roman  catacombs  testify  to  the  deep 
impress  which  this  social  scheme  made  upon  the 
organization,  especially  of  the  Roman  church,  down 
to  the  end  of  the  first  century,  and  to  the  help  it 
gave  in  rendering  that  church  permanent." 

It  would  be  impossible  to  find  a  better  example  of 
an  office  created  entirely  upon  the  principle  of  ex- 


STUDIES  IN  ACTS  287 

pediency,  or   one  more  completely  discarded  as  the 
conditions  passed  away  from  which  it  sprang. 

The  Apostle  Paul,  though  thus  engaged  in  his  great 
enterprises  of  evangelization  and  organization,  was  at 
the  same  time  equally  intent  upon  preserving  the 
unity  of  the  body  of  Christ.  Aside  from  Christ's 
high-priestly  prayer  as  recorded  in  the  seventeenth 
chapter  of  John,  the  New  Testament  literature  upon 
the  subject  of  unity  is  almost  wholly  from  the  pen  of 
Paul.  His  pictured  logic  of  unity  is  embraced  in  the 
figure  of  the  church  as  a  body  with  many  members 
and  many  functions,  but  moved  by  the  same  spirit 
(Rom.  xii.  4  and  5;  I.  Cor.  xii.  12);  in  his  figure  of 
the  church  as  the  body  of  which  Christ  is  the  head 
(Eph.  i.  22  and  23;  iv.  15  and  16);  and  in  his  figure 
of  the  one  body  with  the  one  spirit,  answering  to  the 
one  Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism,  and  one  God  and 
Father  of  all,  who  is  over  all  and  through  all  and  in 
all  (Eph.  iv.  4-6).  He  was  quick  to  chide  the  church 
in  Corinth  for  its  incipient  divisions;  he  exhorted 
the  Christians  in  Rome  to  be  of  the  same  mind  one 
toward  another;  he  prays  the  Philippians  to  fulfill 
his  joy  by  maintaining  like-mindedness,  having  the 
same  love,  being  of  one  accord;  he  instructs  both 
Timothy  and  Titus  to  avoid  foolish  and  unlearned 
questions  because  they  gender  strifes*;  he  commands 
that  those  who  cause  divisions  shall  be  marked  and 
avoided,  and  that  the  heretic  shall  be  rejected  after  a 
first  and  second  admonition.  These  references  are 
sufficient  to  show  how  constantly  the  Apostle  Paul 


288  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

kept  the  unity  of  the  church  before  his  mind,  how 
close  it  was  to  his  heart,  and  how  jealously  he 
guarded  it. 

There  is  still  one  other  principle  that  enters  into 
the  Apostle  Paul's  dealings  with  churches  of  such  a 
general  and  comprehensive  nature  as  to  deserve  sep- 
arate classification  and  treatment.  It  is  a  principle 
inherent  in  the  very  substance  of  the  Gospel,  and  to 
eliminate  it  would  be  well-nigh  to  eliminate  the  Gos- 
pel as  a  social  force  from  the  affairs  of  societies  and 
nations.  It  is  the  democratic  or  brotherly  principle 
of  government,  and  although  it  is  a  matter  of  prime 
importance  it  must  be  dismissed  here  in  a  single 
paragraph.  The  Apostle  Paul  never  lorded  over  the 
congregations ;  he  did  not  dogmatize ;  he  did  not  dic- 
tate; he  was  not  a  pope.  He  instructs,  he  advises, 
he  entreats,  he  pleads  and  prays,  but  never  permits 
himself  to  go  beyond  the  affection  of  a  father  and 
the  persuasion  of  an  elder  brother.  It  was  not  his  to 
claim  dominion  over  faith,  but  to  be  a  helper  in  joy 
(II.  Cor.  i.  24).  He  ranks  himself  with  Apollos  as 
being  only  a  minister  (deacon)  through  whom  the 
Corinthian  Christians  came  to  their  faith  (I.  Cor. 
iii.  5).  As  a  father  he  warns  the  Corinthians,  appeal- 
ing to  them  as  his  beloved  sons,  and  reminding  them 
that  though  they  may  have  ten  thousand  instructors 
they  cannot  have  many  fathers  (I.  Cor.  iv.  14-17). 
Withdrawal  from  a  brother  was  enjoined  as  an  action 
on  the  part  of  the  whole  church,  the  apostle  assum- 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS  289 

ing  only  a  spiritual  presence  in  the  affair  (I.  Cor. 
V.  1-5). 

Kurtz  presents  us  with  an  excellent  summary  of  this 
matter  in  the  following  sentences :  '*  Confining  our- 
selves to  the  oldest  and  indisputably  authentic  epis- 
tles of  Paul,  we  find  that  the  autonomy  of  the  church 
in  respect  of  organization,  government,  discipline 
and  internal  administration  is  made  prominent  as  the 
very  basis  of  its  constitution.  He  never  interferes 
in  those  matters,  enjoining  and  prescribing  by  his 
own  authority,  but  always,  whether  personally  or  in 
spirit,  only  as  associated  with  their  assemblies,  de- 
liberating and  deciding  in  common  with  them." 

The  means  thjit  the  Apostle  Paul  adopted  as  look- 
ing to  the  permanent  unity  of  the  church  are  of 
transcendent  interest  in  a  time  like  this,  when  many 
of  the  choicest  spirits  in  many  of  our  denominations 
are  longing  for  the  reunion  of  Christ's  mournfully 
dissevered  body. 

The  Jewish-Grentile  question  was  the  all  but  insur- 
mountable one  of  the  Apostle  Paul's  day,  and  no 
question  was  ever  fraught  with  greater  dangers  to 
an  incipient  movement.  To  the  Jews,  the  Gentiles 
were  despicable  and  hateful,  and  to  the  Gentiles  the 
Jews  were  already  a  hiss  and  by-word.  In  manners 
and  morals  they  were  in  antipathy;  in  faith  and  wor- 
ship they  were  in  antagonism.  The  prejudices  and 
traditions  of  many  generations  had  intensified  the 
natural  dislike  between  monotheists  on  the  one  hand, 
and  polytheists  on  the  other;  between  social  and  cer- 

19 


290  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

emonial  cleanness  here,  and  lustful  and  idolatrous 
pollutions  there;  and  finally,  between  peoples  each 
alike  proudly  conscious  of  the  divine  choice  in  their 
own  behalf,  and  as  proudly  convinced  of  the  divine 
abandonment  of  all  others. 

Christianity  set  herself  to  the  problem  of  recon- 
ciling these  irreconcilables,  and  aside  from  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Gospel  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  regen- 
eration, the  Apostle  Paul's  is  by  far  the  largest  factor 
in  the  work.  He  seems  from  the  first  to  have  deter- 
mined upon  two  things,  namely,  that  the  liberty  of 
the  Gentiles  should  not  be  infringed,  and  that  the 
unity  of  the  church  should  not  be  disturbed.  Not 
legislation,  or  creed  formulation,  but  education, 
prudence,  and  brotherly  love  were  the  factors  upon 
which  he  relied  in  the  solution  of  the  problem. 

It  is  impossible  to  say  how  much  the  Apostle  Paul 
had  to  do  in  bringing  about  the  first  council  (treated 
in  a  previous  Essay),  but  it  is  very  like  a  work  of  his 
from  first  to  last.  We  know  that  he  was  at  Antioch 
when  the  proposition  was  made  to  go  up  to  Jerusa- 
lem to  the  apostles  and  elders  about  the  matter,  and 
such  a  proposition  would  come  naturally  from  one  so 
fertile  in  methods  and  so  desirous  of  conciliating  as 
Paul.  We  know  also  that  Paul  was  one  of  the  dele- 
gates sent  up  to  Jerusalem  (Acts  xv.  2),  and  we  know 
that  he  conferred  privately  with  the  leading  apostles 
or  members  of  the  Jerusalem  church,  "  lest  by  any 
means  he  should  run  in  vain  "  (Gal.  ii.  2).  His  pri- 
vate  conference   (a   mark   of  his   prudence,    by   the 


STUDIES   IX   ACTS  291 

way,)  with  such  as  "  were  of  reputation,"  must  have 
had  much  to  do  with  the  favorable  decision  of  the 
council,  and  is  not  to  be  forgotten  in  our  estimate 
of  Paul's  leadership  upon  the  questions  of  liberty 
and  union.  Then,  how  graciously  he  accepted  the 
compromise,  and  how  promptly  he  went  out  among 
the  Gentile  churches,  "  delivering  them  the  decrees 
for  to  keep."  The  council  and  the  decrees  were 
educational  and  prudential  as  related  both  to  the 
Jews  and  the  Gentiles. 

In  several  other  respects,  Paul's  prudence  is  ad- 
mirably shown.  First,  when  he  could  no  longer  be 
accompanied  by  Barnabas  he  chose  Silas.  Now  Silas 
was  a  representative  man  of  the  Jerusalem  church,  a 
prophet,  and  an  exhorter,  and  one  of  the  brethren 
chosen  to  accompany  Paul  and  Barnabas  to  Antioch 
when  they  delivered  the  decrees.  By  making  this 
man  his  traveling-companion  and  yoke-fellow  among 
the  Gentiles,  he  shielded  himself  from  the  suspicions 
of  the  Jewish  Christians,  and  he  gained  among  the 
Gentile  Christians  a  double  confirmation  of  the 
decrees. 

The  circumcision  of  Timothy  was  another  pruden- 
tial measure.  Here  no  principle  was  at  stake,  inas- 
much as  Timothy's  mother  was  a  Jewess,  a  point 
that  Luke  makes  especially  prominent  (Acts  xvi. 
1-3). 

Upon  his  last  visit  to  Jerusalem,  at  the  suggestion 
of  James,  Paul  undertook  to  purify  himself  with  the 
four  men  who  had  a  vow,  and  to  be  at  charges  with 


292  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

them.  This  also  was  a  prudential  measure  (Acts  xxi. 
21-24).  Paul  could  conscientiously  do  this,  being  a 
Jew,  but  we  cannot  imagine  him  enjoining  it  upon 
any  Gentile.  No  doubt  it  had  the  desired  effect  upon 
Jerusalem  Jews,  for  we  are  told  that  the  disturbance 
was  created  by  '' Jews  which  were  of  Asia." 

It  is  a  meaningful  fact  that  succeeding  every  one 
of  his  great  missionary  journeys,  Paul  made  a  visit 
to  Jerusalem.  After  his  first  missionary  journey 
came  the  council  in  Jerusalem.  At  the  close  of  his 
second  journey,  having  landed  at  Csesarea,  he  went 
up  and  saluted  the  church  in  Jerusalem  before  he 
went  down  to  Antioch  (Acts  xviii.  22).  At  the  close 
of  his  third  journey,  he  determined  to  go  up  to  Jeru- 
salem, even  at  the  risk  of  his  life,  and  that  though 
he  was  longing  even  then  to  visit  Rome.  He  refused 
to  be  dissuaded  from  this  visit,  and  said:  '*  Behold, 
I  go  bound  in  the  spirit  to  Jerusalem,  not  knowing 
the  things  that  shall  befall  me  there,  save  that  the 
Holy  Spirit  witnesseth  in  every  city,  saying  that 
bonds  and  afflictions  abide  me.  But  none  of  these 
things  move  me,  neither  count  I  my  life  dear  unto 
myself,  so  that  I  might  finish  my  course  with  joy,  and 
the  ministry,  which  I  have  received  of  the  Lord 
Jesus,  to  testify  the  Gospel  of  tlie  grace'"  of  God" 
(Acts  XX.  22-24). 

Why  was  he  so  intent  upon  reaching  Jerusalem? 
Others  could  have  carried  and  distributed  the  alms 
entrusted  to  hiiii.  Though  he  planned  to  reach  the 
city  by  Pentecost,  he  must  long  since  have  come  to 


STUDIES    IN   ACTS  293 

look  upon  the  Mosaic  feasts  as  of  no  vital  import- 
ance. But  that  he,  the  apostle  to  the  Gentiles, 
should  keep  in  touch  with  the  mother  church,  that 
he  should  in  person  refute  the  falsehoods  of  the 
Judaizers,  that  he  should  report,  as  Peter  did  upon 
his  return  from  Csesarea,  the  work  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  among  the  Gentiles,  and  that  he  should  hold 
close  the  bonds  of  mutual  knowledge  and  regard 
between  these  two  peoples, — this  was  a  matter  of  the 
first  importance.  These  visits,  therefore,  were  most 
highly  prudential. 

Supreme  above  all  else  in  the  Apostle  Paul's  con- 
structive policy  was  the  principle  of  love.  One 
never  sees  it  treated  nowadays  as  a  fundamental 
principle  of  unity,  and  yet  that  is  what  Paul  made  of 
it  both  theoretically  and  practically.  Over  all  elo- 
quence and  offices  and  gifts  rises  love;  over  faith 
and  hope  even  rises  love.  Paul  agrees  with  John  in 
making  love  the  highest  orthodoxy,  and  the  deepest 
heresy,  hate.  The  thirteenth  chapter  of  First  Corin- 
thians is  not  a  panegyric  only;  it  is  a  union  platform. 
Where  love  to  Christ  is  supreme,  faith  cannot  get 
far  away  from  him,  and  where  love  toward  men  is, 
there  follows  a  community  of  learning  and  faith. 
Therefore  faith  needs  scarcely  any  other  defense 
than  love,  and  union  scarcely  any  other  bond.  Our 
sins  against  the  law  of  love  have  been  the  heaviest 
cross  of  heresy  that  the  body  of  Christ  has  had  to 
bear,  and  of  all  destructive  isms,  Cainism  has  been 
the  most  destructive. 


294  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

But  Paul  did  not  rest  in  panegyrics;  he  was  a 
man  of  action  as  well  as  diction.  How  did  he  apply 
his  union  platform  of  love  to  the  Jewish-Gentile 
controversy? 

By  reason  of  persecution,  or  famine,  or  from  some 
cause  unknown,  there  were  many  poor  saints  in  Je- 
rusalem. Twice  the  Apostle  Paul  came  bringing 
help  from  Gentile  Christians,  once  from  Antioch  at 
the  time  of  the  famine,  when  he  and  Barnabas  re- 
mained probably  many  months  ministering  to  the 
needy;  and  once  from  the  Gentile  Christians  of 
Galatia  and  Macedonia  and  Achaia.  The  poor  Jew- 
ish believer,  receiving  his  daily  food  for  months  at  a 
time  from  the  hands  of  Paul,  and  recognizing  that 
it  came  from  uncircumcised  believers,  or  at  least 
from  a  mixed  church,  must  have  had  his  heart  grad- 
ually but  also  greatly  softened  on  the  subject  of  Gen- 
tile circumcision.  Unless  his  own  heart  were  of 
stone,  it  must  have  been  borne  in  upon  him  that  after 
all,  though  his  Gentile  benefactors  bore  not  in  the 
flesh  the  mark  of  Abraham,  yet  their  brotherly 
hearts  were  sufficiently  circumcised. 

"  All  hearts  confess  the  saints  elect 
Who,  twain  in  faith,  in  love  agree  ; 
And  melt  not  in  an  acid  sect 
The  Christian  pearl  of  charity." 

The  contributions  from  the  churches  of  Galatia 
and  Macedonia  and  Achaia  must  have  been  on  a 
large  scale.  For  a  long  time  these  churches  had  been 
gathering   systematically,    "laying  by  them    in  store 


STUDIES    IN   ACTS  295 

as  the  Lord  prospered  them,"  and  bringing  it  to- 
gether weekly  at  their  Lord's  day  worship.  In  his 
first  letter  to  the  Corinthians  Paul  la^'S  this  w^ork 
upon  them,  and  in  his  second  letter,  written  several 
months  later,  he  praises  them  for  their  forwardness 
in  it,  and  assures  them  that  he  has  been  boasting  of 
them  to  the  Macedonian  Christians  (L  Cor.  xvi.  1; 
II.  Cor.  ix).  The  philosophy  of  Christian  union 
that  the  Apostle  Paul  sees  in  this  is  expressed  with 
delicacy  but  not  with  uncertainty  in  the  following 
verses:  ''For  the  administration  of  this  service  not 
only  supplieth  the  want  of  the  saints,  but  abound- 
eth  also  through  many  thanksgivings  unto  God; 
seeing  that  through  the  proving  of  you  by  this  min- 
istration they  glorify  God  for  the  obedience  of  your 
confession  unto  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  and  for  the 
liberality  of  your  contribution  unto  them  and  to  all; 
while  they  themselves  also,  with  supplication  on 
your  behalf,  long  after  you  by  reason  of  the  exceed- 
ing grace  of  God  in  you."  Ah!  There,  instead  of 
hair-splittings,  and  suspicions,  and  coldness,  and 
alienations;  instead  of  the  bandying  back  and  forth 
of  ugly  words,  and  prolonged  discussions  upon 
mooted  points — there  was  "  sweet  charity,"  and  the 
fruits  of  it,  and  the  thanksgivings  to  God  by  reason 
of  it,  and  Jews  and  Gentiles  (wonderful!  wonder- 
ful!) longing  after  one  another  because  of  the  ex- 
ceeding grace  of  God  thus  discovered.  Thus  prac- 
tical love  was  made  by  the  magic  of  the  Gospel  and 
management  of  Paul  the  solvent  of  the  most  uncon- 


2i^6  STUDIES    IN    ACTS 

querable  disagreements,  and  that  hard  old  world  in 
which  hatred  and  warfare  were  the  rule,  with  sel- 
dom an  exception  in  favor  of  friendship  and  peace; 
in  which  there  was  not  an  asylum  for  the  blind,  or 
a  hospital  for  the  leper,  or  a  home  or  a  heart  for  an 
abandoned  babe;  in  which  clannishness  was  esteemed 
a  virtue,  and  inter-ethnic  charity  was  unknown,  saw 
Jew  and  Gentile  rise  up  together  in  the  spirit  of 
Christ's  love  to  call  each  other  blessed!  O  Logic, 
thou  hast  never  wrought  miracles  like  this!  O  Unity 
of  Love,  we  still  search  for  thee  as  for  the  Holy 
Grail !  Biting  and  devouring  one  another,  we  search 
by  logic  in  the  spirit  of  legalism  for  unity.  We  in- 
variably come  back  from  our  search  torn  and  empty- 
handed,  and  the  world  does  not  say,  *' Behold  how 
these  brethren  love  one  another." 


NOTES  AND    COMMENTS 


PREFACE  TO  THE  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS. 


The  general  purpose  of  this  part  of  the  work  is 
briefly  expressed  in  the  Preliminary  Essay,  page  25. 
It  may  be  said  further  that  the  plan  and  scope  of 
the  Essays  precluded  the  treatment  of  many  impor- 
tant passages.  It  is  hoped  that  the  Notes  and  Com- 
ments will  be  found  to  supply  the  deficiency  thus 
necessitated,  and  that  the  work  as  a  whole  may  there- 
fore fairly  claim  for  itself  a  goodly  degree  of  com- 
pleteness as  a  treatise  upon  Acts. 

In  the  treatment  of  chapters  xxvii.  and  xxviii, 
it  will  be  noticed  that  the  dates  assumed  by  Prof. 
Kamsay  for  the  Apostle  Paul's  voyage  to  Rome,  and 
consequently  his  first  imprisonment  there,  are  earlier 
by  a  year  and  a  half  or  two  years  than  those  com- 
monly agreed  upon.  Whether  Prof.  Kamsay's  chro- 
nological scheme  can  command  general  acceptance 
remains  to  be  seen.  The  dates  are  important  as 
fixing  those  also  of  the  letters  written  from  Rome; 
moreover  the  earlier  dates  give  the  ampler  time  for 
the  labors  attributed  by  some  to  the  apostle  after  this 
imprisonment,  namely,  his  visit  to  Greece  and  Asia 
Minor,  his  evangelization  of  Crete,  and  possibly  a 
journey  into  Spain,  and  quite  certainly  the  writing  of 
the  pastoral  epistles. 


300  PREFACE   TO   THE   NOTES   AND   COMMENTS 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  Notes  and  Comments 
have,  as  a  rule,  no  other  order  or  connection  than  the 
very  natural  and  simple  one  of  the  chapters  and 
verses.  In  the  few  instances  where  there  is  a 
departure  from  this  order  the  references  embraced 
in  the  body  of  the  text  will,  it  is  hoped,  sufficiently 
guide  the  reader,  thus  avoiding  foot-notes  and  mar- 
ginal references.  Wherever  in  the  Essays  reference 
is  made  to  the  Notes  or  Comments  it  is  invariably  to 
this  part  of  the  work,  and  to  the  passage  in  hand. 


NOTES   AND    COMMENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

1.  "The  former  treatise."  Referring  to  the  Gos- 
pel according  to  Luke.  **  First"  rather  than 
"former"  in  the  original,  the  superlative  indicating, 
as  some  suppose,  Luke's  intention  to  write  a  third 
treatise. 

"Theophilus."  An  unknown  person.  Called  in 
the  introduction  to  Luke's  Gospel,  "most  excel- 
lent," an  epithet  in  the  original  "technical  and  dis- 
tinctive," and  used  by  Luke  as  implying  equestrian 
rank.  Accordingly,  Theophilus  was  a  Roman  officer, 
whose  Roman  name  is  not  known,  Theophilus  being 
his  baptismal  name.  "It  has  an  important  bearing 
on  Luke's  attitude  to  the  Roman  State  that  his  work 
is  addressed  to  a  Roman  officer  who  had  become  a 
Christian."— P?'o/.  W.  M.  Ramsay. 

2.  "Was  taken  up."  The  resurrection  necessi- 
tates the  ascension.  It  was  not  expedient  that  Jesus 
should  abide  upon  earth.  He  could  not  again  pass 
away  from  earth  by  the  gates  of  death.  The  miracle 
of  his  ascension,  therefore,  naturally  rounds  out  the 
miracle  of  his  earthly  presence.  "The  reality  of 
such  a  fact  as  that  related  by  Luke  in  his  account  of 

301 


302  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

the  ascension  is  indubitable,  both  from  the  stand- 
point of  faith  in  the  resurrection  and  from  the 
standpoint  of  faith  in  general.  The  ascension  is  a 
postulate  of  faith." — Godet. 

3.  *' Infallible  proofs."  "  The  adjective  here  has 
no  representative  in  the  original.  The  Greek  word 
signifies  some  sign  or  token  manifest  to  the  senses,  as 
opposed  to  evidence  given  by  witnesses."  (Luke 
xxiv.  36-44;  John  xx.  24-30;  I.  John  i.  l-?>.)—Oam- 
hridge  Bible  for  Schools  and  Colleges. 

"Being  seen  of  them  forty  days."  In  the  last 
chapter  of  his  Gospel  Luke  omits  chronological 
statements;  here  he  gives  a  definite  statement  of 
time.     There  is  no  discrepancy. 

**SpeakiQg  of  the  things  pertaining  to  the  kingdom 
of  God."  These  talks  of  Jesus  in  his  risen  state! 
With  the  emi^hasis  of  his  five  wounds !  Could  the 
disciples  ever  forget  them?  Could  they  be  deceived? 
Was  it  not  in  his  old-time  style,  inimitable,  that  he 
spoke,  and  did  he  not  speak  continually  about  the 
object  of  his  life  and  death,  namely,  the  kingdom  of 
his  Father? 

5.  "Baptized  with  the  Holy  Spirit."  A  striking 
metaphor.  It  is  to  be  understood  in  analogy  with 
John's  baptism.  "Their  spirits  were  as  literally  and 
completely  immersed  in  the  Holy  Spirit  (e.  g.,  on 
Pentecost,  ch.  ii.  1-4)  as  their  bodies  had  been  in  the 
waters  of  Jordan." — Prof.  J.  W.  McGarvey. 

6.  "Wilt  thou  at  this  time  restore  again  the  king- 
dom to   Israel?"     Pathetic    question!     One   of  the 


NOTES   AND   COMMENTS  303 

most  pregnant  passages  in  the  book.  Contrast  the 
worldly,  temporal,  carnal  longings  here  expressed 
with  the  spiritual  preaching  of  Pentecost,  and  see 
therein  the  miracle  promised  above  in  the  baptism  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  and  the  need  of  it.  (Essays  I.  and 
XIII.) 

8.  *'And  ye  shall  be  witnesses  unto  me  both  in 
Jerusalem,  and  in  all  Judaea,  and  in  Samaria,  and 
unto  the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth."  The  last 
recorded  words  of  Jesus.  Absolutely,  this  is  a  for- 
eign missionary  commission.  The  Lord  gives  in  his 
last  sentence  the  boundary  of  his  love,  and  makes  the 
mission  of  his  followers  identical  with  it.  It  was  his 
design  that  the  earthly  limits  of  our  faith  should 
become  co-extensive  with  the  earthly  limits  of  limit- 
less love. 

11.  "Easter  Morning,  1883.— Our  task  is  ended, 
and  we  also  worship  and  look  up.  And  we  go  back 
from  this  sight  into  a  hostile  world,  to  love,  and  to 
live,  and  to  work  for  a  Risen  Christ.  But  as  earth's  day 
is  growing  dim,  and,  with  earth's  gathering  darkness, 
breaks  over  it  heaven's  storm,  we  ring  out — as  of  old 
they  were  wont,  from  church  tower  to  the  mariners 
that  hugged  the  rock-bound  coast — our  Easter  bells 
to  guide  them  who  are  belated  over  the  storm-tossed 
sea,  beyond  the  breakers,  into  the  desired  haven. 
Ring  out,  earth,  all  thy  Easter  chimes;  bring  your 
offerings,  all  ye  people;  worship  in  faith,  for — 'This 
Jesus,  which  was  received  up  from  you  into  heaven, 
shall  so  come  in  like  manner  as  ye  beheld  him  going 


304  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

into  heaven.  Even  so,  Lord  Jesus,  come  quickly.'  " 
— Edersheim:  Last  paragraph  of  ''Life  and  Times  of 
Jesus  the  Messiah.'^ 

12.  *'Then  returned  they  unto  Jerusalem."  See 
Luke  xxiv.  47,  49,  52.  It  was  a  bold  stroke  to  begin 
at  Jerusalem.  *' These  things  were  not  done  in  a 
corner."  Thus  the  city  that  crucified  Christ  stands 
in  witness  of  the  birth  of  his  church  through  all  ages. 

14.  "And  Mary  the  mother  of  Jesus."  Thus  in 
prayer  the  Scriptures  leave  our  Savior's  mother.  In 
the  Scripture  she  worships,  but  never  is  worshiped. 
Her  child  Jesus  is  her  Savior,  even  as  he  is  ours,  and 
to  worship  her  is  to  worship  a  fellow-worshiper. 

**And  with  his  brethren."  *' These  are  called 
(Matt.  xiii.  55;  Mark  vi.  3)  James,  Joseph  (or  Joses), 
Simon  and  Judas,  and  are  here  clearly  distinguished 
from  the  apostles,  which  shows  that  James  the  son 
of  Alpheeus,  and  James  the  Lord's  brother,  were 
different  persons." — Cambridge  Bible  for  Schools 
and  Colleges, 

18.  "And  falling  headlong,  he  burst  asunder 
.  .  ."  "  There  is  a  difference  but  no  contradiction 
in  the  accounts  given  by  Matthev/  (xxvii.  1-5)  and 
Luke.  Matthew  does  not  say  what  happened  to  the 
body  of  Judas  after  he  hanged  himself;  nor  does 
Luke  say  what  he  did  to  himself  ere  he  fell  headlong 
and  burst  asunder  in  the  midst.  We  have  not  the 
link  to  connect  his  act  of  suicide  with  what  befell  his 
body;  but  the  two  facts  are  in  no  sense  at  variance." 
— Ormiston, 


NOTES   AND   COMMENTS  305 

"There  is  scarcely  an  American  or  English  jury 
that  would  scruple  to  receive  these  two  accounts  as 
perfectly  consistent." — Alexander. 

19.  *'Iu  their  proper  tongue."  This,  in  connec- 
tion with  Col.  iv.  9  and  14,  is  used  by  Paley  in  his 
"Horse  Paulinse."  Though  not  so  convincing  as 
many  of  the  "undesigned  coincidences,"  which  he 
uses  with  great  power,  it  has  weight,  and  is  a  good 
example  of  his  method.  Had  the  writer  of  Acts 
been  a  Jew  he  would  scarcely  have  said  "  their 
tongue."  The  indication,  therefore,  is  that  the 
writer  was  a  Gentile.  Now  in  Colossians  the  Apos- 
tle Paul  refers  to  Aristarchus,  Marcus,  and  Jesus 
who  is  called  Justus,  as  being  "of  the  circumcision." 
Then  he  refers  to  Epaphras,  Luke,  and  Demas,  as 
though  they  were  not  "  of  the  circumcision."  If  this 
inference  is  correct,  the  two  passages  harmonize  in 
indicating  the  Gentile  extraction  of  Luke.  The 
author  says,  "Though  this  may  bear  the  appearance 
of  great  nicety  and  refinement,  it  ought  not,  perhaps, 
to  be  deemed  imaginary." 

22.  "To  be  a  witness  with  us  of  his  resurrec- 
tion." The  resurrection  is  the  cardinal  fact.  It  is 
the  one  miracle  necessitated  by  all  others  in  the  his- 
tory of  Jesus,  and  explanatory  of  them.  Back  from 
this,  link  by  link,  we  trace  the  line  of  his  life  till  we 
reach  his  miraculous  conception;  and  forward  from 
this  we  trace  link  by  link,  the  miraculous  deeds  of 
his  apostles,  the  miraculous  birth  of  his  church,  and 
its   majestic    spiritual   march    through   that   ancient 

20 


30G  STUDIES   I^   ACTS 

world.  Edersheim,  reviewing  the  "  vision  hypothe- 
sis," and  other  rationalistic  theories  antagonistic  to 
the  account  of  the  resurrection,  concludes,  "  The 
historical  student  is  shut  up  to  the  simple  acceptance 
of  the  narrative.  The  great  fact  itself,"  he  says, 
"  may  unhesitatingly  be  pronounced  that  best  estab- 
lished in  history."  Godet,  as  quoted  by  the  same 
author,  tells  us  that  Strauss  admits  that  the  church 
would  never  have  arisen  if  the  apostles  had  not  had 
unshaken  faith  in  the  resurrection  of  Jesus.  "  This 
faith  of  the  apostles  would  never  have  arisen  unless 
the  resurrection   had  been   a    true   historical   fact." 

To  the  student  of  the  Gospels  and  Acts,  and  of 
Jewish  history  and  human  nature,  the  resurrection  of 
Jesus  is  an  intellectual  necessity. 

25.  "That  he  might  go  to  his  own  place."  Pre- 
cisely. That  is  where  we  all  shall  go.  The  expres- 
sion is  pregnant.  It  is  the  conclusion  of  all  argu- 
ments upon  the  question  of  the  future.  Justice  and 
mercy  unite  to  fit  the  immortal  spirits  of  men  into 
their  eternal  niches.  As  to  restoration  of  the 
wicked? 

"  A  tenderer  light  than  moon  or  sun, 
Than  song  of  earth  a  sweeter  hymn, 
May  shine  and  sound  forever  on, 
And  thou  be  deaf  and    dim. 

"  Forever  round  the  Mercy -seat 
The  guiding  lights  of  love  shall  burn  ; 
But  what  if,  habit-bound,  thy  feet 
Should  lack  the  will  to  turn?" 

—  Wh  Utter :    ' '  The  Answer. ' ' 


NOTES    AND    COMMENTS  307 

26.  "And  the  lot  fell  upon  Matthias."  Never 
during  the  presence  of  Jesus  did  the  apostles  cast 
lots;  and  never  after  the  Holy  Spirit  came  upon 
them.  For  a  little  while  left  to  themselves,  they  fall 
into  this  weakness.  Was  Matthias  not  an  apostle 
then?  In  chapter  vi.  2,  the  tioelve  are  spoken  of, 
though  Paul  was  not  yet  chosen,  thus  evidently  in- 
cluding Matthias.  Then  with  Paul  there  were  thir- 
teen, and  with  Barnabas  (xiv.  14)  there  were  four- 
teen. And  if  Andronicus  and  Junias  (Variorum 
reading)  may  be  counted  (Rom.  xvi.  7),  there  were 
sixteen.  We  should  not  draw  the  lines  too  rigidly 
around  official   names  and  numbers. 


CHAPTER  II. 

1.  "  When  the  day  of  Pentecost  was  fully  come." 
In  A.  D.  30,  on  the  27th  of  May,  on  a  Sunday,  ac- 
cording to  Meyer  and  Schaff.  For  the  discussion 
of  this  intricate  and  interesting  subject,  reference  is 
made  to  the  authors  named,  the  first  in  his  commen- 
tary on  Acts,  and  the  second  in  his  History  of  the 
Apostolic  Church.  Here,  therefore,  at  the  birth  of 
the  Church  of  Christ  begins  the  Sunday,  or  First 
Day,  or  Lord's  Day  worship  on  the  part  of  the 
Church.  It  is  doubtful  if  the  Gentile  Christians 
ever  kept  the  Mosaic  Sabbath.  There  is  evidence 
that  the  Jewish  Christians,  while  still  keeping  the 
Jewish  Sabbath,  kept  also  the  remembrance  of  the 
Lord's  resurrection    on  the    first   day    of  the  week. 


308  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

"  The  church  always  celebrated  Pentecost  on  Sunday, 
the  fiftieth  day  after  Easter — which  likewise  always 
falls  on  Sunday." — Schajf.  The  disciples  in  Troas 
met  together  on  the  first  day  of  the  week  to  break 
bread  (xx.  7).  The  Corinthian  Christians  were  ex- 
horted to  make  their  offerings  to  charity  upon  the 
first  day  of  the  week  (I.  Cor.  xvi.  2). 

Little  weight  one  way  or  the  other  belongs  to  the 
argument  in  favor  of  the  creational  Sabbath.  The 
resurrection  of  Jesus  and  the  inception  of  his  church 
are  to  the  world  events  quite  as  significant  as  that  of 
creation  itself.  However,  there  is  an  argument  well 
worthy  of  notice  in  favor  of  our  Sunday  being  the 
creational  Sabbath.  "  The  ancient  nations  all  about 
the  Jews  devoted  the  first  day  of  the  week  to  what 
was  at  first  the  chief  symbol  of  God,  and  then  the 
chief  god,  the  sun,  calling  it  Sunday.  This  holy  day 
was  strangely  enough  one  day  after  that  of  the  Jews. 
This  remarkable  fact  may  be  explained  by  the  theory 
of  many  scholars,  with  which  the  Scriptures  harmon- 
ize, that  the  first  day  Sabbath,  which  Adam  be- 
queathed to  all  nations — not  under  that  name,  how- 
ever— was  at  the  Exodus  changed  for  the  Jews  only 
as  a  sign  of  their  separation,  and  a  protection  against 
idolatry,  to  the  preceding  day,  this  change  continu- 
ing until  the  ceremonial  mission  of  the  Jewish  peo- 
ple had  been  completed.  Then  the  Savior  buried  in 
his  own  grave,  by  sleeping  there  on  Saturday,  the 
Jewish  part  of  the  Sabbath — its  sacrifices  and  its 
order   in   the    week — partly  because   Christians    now 


NOTES    AND    COMMENTS  309 

needed  to  be  separated  from  Jewish  ceremonies  as 
much  as  the  Jews  of  the  Exodus  needed  to  be  sepa- 
rated from  the  heathen  days  of  worship;  partly  be- 
cause the  narrow  Jewish  dispensation  was  now  to 
give  place  to  one  as  broad  as  mankind,  which  called 
for  a  return  on  the  part  of  the  Jewish  Christians  to 
the  original  Sabbath  of  Adam." — Crafts:  The 
Sahhath  for  Man.  See  also  his  references  to  the 
arguments  of  Rev.  James  Johnston  and  others.  Of 
Exodus  xvi.  he  says:  "Many  learned  men  find  in 
this  chapter  evidence  that  the  Sabbath  was  set  back 
one  day  at  the  Exodus." 

*'  It  is  remarkable  that  the  day  of  the  giving  of 
the  law  was  celebrated  throughout  the  Jewish  ages 
without  one  word  in  the  Old  Testament  to  indicate 
that  it  was  designed  to  commemorate  that  event.  In 
like  manner  the  day  of  the  week  on  which  the  Holy 
Spirit  descended  has  been  celebrated  from  that  time 
to  this,  though  no  formal  reason  is  given  in  the  New 
Testament  for  its  observance.  The  resurrection  of 
Jesus  and  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Spirit  are  of  such 
transcendent  importance,  that  all  minds  agree  at 
once  in  attributing  to  them,  and  especially  to  the 
former,  the  celebration  of  the  day." — Prof.  J.  W. 
McGarvey. 

**  Very  soon,  alongside  of  the  Sabbath,  and  among 
Gentile  Christians  instead  of  it,  the  first  day  of  the 
week  as  the  day  of  Christ's  resurrection  began  to  be 
observed  as    a  festival." — Kurtz:     Church   History. 

How  far  this  observance   was   from  the  solemnity 


310  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

and  the  legalism  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath  is  indicated 
by  this  phrase,  '*  a  festival."  Professor  Zahn  of 
Erlangen  is  more  positive  than  Prof.  Kurtz  in  his  de- 
scription of  the  free  and  joyful,  rather  than  the  legal- 
istic, character  of  the  day.  He  says:  "The  Chris- 
tians of  the  first  three  centuries  never  thought  of 
regarding  the  Sunday  as  the  continuation  of  the  Jew- 
ish Sabbath,  or  even  to  call  this  day  'Sabbath  ' — the 
day  of  the  Lord,  referring  to  Christ,  being  the  name 
uniformly  used.  If  we  ask  the  Christians  of  the 
earliest  centuries,  the  oldest  witnesses  to  the  idea  of 
Sunday,  for  the  reason  which  they  had  in  marking 
this  one  day  above  all  the  rest,  they  will  with  one 
voice  declare,  '  We  celebrate  this  day  because  Christ 
on  this  day  arose  from  the  dead.'  The  Sunday  was 
for  them  a  weekly  recurrence  of  the  Easter  festival. 
Throughout  Sunday  was  regarded  as  a  day  of  joy." 

4.  "And  they  were  filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  began  to  speak  with  other  tongues,  as  the  Spirit 
gave  them  utterance." 

"At  this  moment  was  performed  the  proper  act  of 
inspiration,  which  forms,  in  some  degree,  the  con- 
tinuation in  the  apostles  of  the  incarnation  of  the 
Word.  Inspiration  is  as  much  a  practical  as  a  theo- 
retical process.  It  is  communication  as  well  of  life 
as  of  the  knowledge  of  Christ,  and  affects  not  only 
the  subsequent  writings  of  the  apostles  and  evan- 
gelists, but  also  all  their  oral  instructions.  Hence- 
forth they  always  spoke,  and  wrote,  and  acted,  out  of 
the  fullness  of  the  Spirit.     He  was  the  peryading  and 


NOTES   AND   COMMENTS  311 

controlling  principle  of  their  entire  moral  and  relig- 
ious being.  This  supernatural  equipment  was  their 
solemn  ordination  and  inauguration  to  the  apostolic 
office. 

"  The  effects  of  this  miracle  were  in  perfect  keep- 
ing with  such  a  creative  beginning,  and  with  its  vast 
significancy  for  the  future.  Among  them  we  must 
distinguish  (1)  the  speaking  with  tongues,  or  the 
uttering  of  the  new  life  in  the  form  of  praise  and 
prayer;  (2)  the  testimony  of  the  apostles  concerning 
Christ,  given  in  intelligible  language  to  the  assembled 
multitude;  .  .  .  (3)  the  result  of  this  preaching, 
the  conversion  and  baptism  of  three  thousand  Israel- 
ites."— Schaf:    History  of  the  Apostolic  Church. 

6-12.  These  verses  are  the  best  possible  commen- 
tary upon  verse  four.  The  efforts  of  many  critics  to 
rid  the  account  of  its  amazingly  miraculous  element 
cannot  be  said  to  have  succeeded.  Such  efforts  can 
be  entertained  only  on  the  supposition  of  a  mixture 
of  the  mythical  with  the  historical,  that  is,  by  doing 
violence  to  the  history.  Hackett  emphasizes  the  fact 
that,  "Critics  who  would  explain  away  the  reality  of 
the  miracle  admit  that  it  was  the  writer's  intention 
to  record  a  miracle."  Exemplifying  this,  he  quotes 
Meyer:  "The  other  tongues  are  to  be  considered, 
according  to  the  text,  as  absolutely  nothing  else  than 
languages  which  were  different  from  the  native  lan- 
guage of  the  speakers." 

17.  "The  last  days."  The  transition  period  from 
the    old    dispensation    to  the   new,  beginning  prac- 


312  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

tically  with  the  preaching  of  John  the  Baptist  and 
ending  with  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  in  the  year 
70  A.  D.  Within  this  period  the  prophecy  of  Joel 
finds  its  fulfillment. 

23.  Here  God's  plans  and  man's  wickedness  are 
brought  into  striking  contrast.  ^'  What  God  does  he 
from  the  first  intends,"  and  the  spirit  of  his  intent  as 
regards  the  delivering  up  of  Christ  is  expressed  in 
John  iii.  16 — "  God  so  loved  the  world  that  he  gave 
his  only-begotten  Son."  Against  this  goodness  there 
were  raised  the  "wicked  hands"  of  men. 

24.  '*Whom  God  hath  raised  up."  This  one 
word  "God,"  as  it  is  used  in  the  Bible,  is  the  explan- 
ation of  all  that  is  miraculous.  God's  agency  was 
the  Apostle  Paul's  final  argument  in  favor  of  the 
resurrection.  "  Why  should  it  be  thought  a  thing 
incredible  with  you  that  God  should  raise  the 
dead?"  (xxvi.8). 

So  far  from  the  resurrection  being  impossible,  it 
was  on  the  contrary  not  possible  that  Jesus  should 
"be  holden  of  the  travail-pains  of  death."  Jesus, 
speaking  in  strangest,  tenderest  strains  of  his  Fath- 
er's love,  says  of  his  life,  "I  have  power  to  lay  it 
down,  and  I  have  power  to  take  it  again"  (John 
x.  UlS). 

27.  "Hades."  Thus  in  the  Revised.  It  is  the 
Greek  word  brought  over,  as  there  is  no  English 
word  precisely  suited  to  its  translation.  It  means 
quite  literally  unaeen,  and  is  used  to  represent  the 
place  of  the  dead.     In  Luke  xxiii.43  Jesus  calls  it 


NOTES   AND   COMMENTS  313 

paradise.  '*The  word  occurs  in  the  New  Testament 
eleven  times,  and  is  rendered  by  the  word  hell  in 
every  instance  except  one  (I.  Cor.  xv.  55),  where  it  is 
rendered  grave.  In  no  instance  does  it  mean  hell 
as  that  word  is  now  commonly  undertood,  .  . 
nor  in  any  case  does  it  necessarily  mean  grave. 
When  it  is  said  that  the  soul  of  Christ  was  not  left  in 
Hades — unhappily  rendered  in  our  version,  hell — the 
real  meaning  is  that  his  soul  was  not  left  in  the 
abode  of  separate  spirits,  whither  it  went  at  death, 
even  as  his  body  did  not  remain  in  the  grave  where 
it   was   laid   after   his  crucifixion." — Ormiston. 

36.  This  is  the  climax  of  the  sermon.  Its  rhetor- 
ical effect  must  have  been  terrible.  The  antithesis 
between  God's  deed  and  man's  is  absolute.  On  the 
basis  of  the  resurrection  the  apostle  declares  the 
Lordship  and  Messiahship  of  Jesus,  and  boldly 
charges  his  hearers  with  the  murder  of  their  "  Lord 
and  Christ." 

38.  "  What  a  definite  and  complete  answer  and 
promise  of  salvation!  The  repentance  demands  a 
change  of  ethical  disposition  as  the  moral  condition 
of  being  baptized."— 3ie?/e?'. 

Not  only  is  the  answer  "definite  and  complete," 
but  it  is  definitely  and  completely  in  keeping  with 
Christ's  commission.  (Matt,  xxviii.  19,  20;  Mark 
xvi.  15,  16;  Luke  xxiv.  47). 

"Be  baptized."  "Baptism,  which  our  Lord  in- 
stituted at  his  departure  from  earth,  meets  us  in  the 
Christian   form   on  the   first    Pentecost   in   intimate 


314  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

connection  with  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel.  As 
to  its  nature  and  import,  it  appears  as  the  church- 
founding  sacrament  and  the  outward  medium  of  the 
forgiveness  of  sins  and  the  communication  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.  It  is  the  solemn  ceremony  of  reception 
and  incorporation  into  the  communion  of  the  visible 
church  and  of  Jesus  Christ  its  head.  Hence  Paul 
calls  it  a  putting  on  of  Christ  (Gal.  iii.  27),  a  union 
into  one  body  by  one  Spirit  (I.  Cor.  xii.  13),  a  wash- 
ing of  regeneration  and  renewing  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
(Tit.  iii.  5),  and  a  being  buried  with  Christ  and  rising 
again  with  him  to  a  new  and  holy  life  (Kom.  vi.  4), 
.  .  .  Finally,  as  to  the  outward  mode  of  adminis- 
tering this  ordinance,  immersion  and  not  sprinkling 
was  unquestionably  the  original,  normal  form.  This 
is  shown  by  the  very  meaning  of  the  Greek  words 
used  to  designate  the  rite.  Then  again,  by  the 
analogy  of  the  baptism  of  John,  which  was  performed 
in  the  Jordan  (Matt.  iii.  G,  16;  Mark  i.  9).  Further- 
more, by  the  New  Testament  comparisons  of  baptism 
with  the  passage  through  the  Red  Sea  (I.  Cor.  x.  2), 
with  the  flood  (I.  Pet.  iii.  21),  with  a  bath  (Eph. 
V.  26;  Tit.  iii.  5),  with  a  burial  and  resurrection 
(E-om.  vi.  4;  Col.  ii.  12).  Finally  by  the  general  usage 
of  ecclesiastical  antiquity  which  was  always  immer- 
sion (as  it  is  to  this  day  in  the  Oriental  and  also  in 
the  Grgeco-Russian  churches) ;  pouring  and  sprink- 
ling being  substituted  only  in  cases  of  urgent  neces- 
sity, such  as  sickness  and  approaching  death." — 
S chaff:  History  of  the  Apostolic  Church,  pp.  565 
and  568. 


NOTES   AND    COMMENTS  315 

Kurtz,  in  speaking  of  the  constitution,  worship  and 
discipline  of  the  first  church,  dismisses  baptism  in  a 
single  sentence:  "  Baptism  was  administered  by  com- 
plete immersion  (Acts  viii.  38)  in  the  name  of  Clirist 
or  the   Trinity." 

Prof.  Stifler,  in  his  recent  "  Introduction  to  the 
Book  of  Acts,"  calls  attention  to  the  emphasis  placed 
upon  baptism  at  the  beginning  of  each  new  cycle  in 
the  missionary  record.  First,  at  Pentecost;  secondly, 
at  the  home  of  Cornelius  upon  the  admission  of  Gen- 
tiles to  the  church;  thirdly,  at  the  conversions  of 
Lydia  and  the  Philippian  jailer,  the  beginning  of  the 
church  in  Europe. 

One  of  the  very  latest  of  recent  great  authorities. 
Prof.  Sanday,  in  his  commentary  on  Romans,  treats 
the  sixth  chapter  of  Romans,  vv.  1-5,  as  follows: 

''Baptism  has  a  double  function.  (1)  It  brings 
the  Christian  into  personal  contact  with  Christ,  so 
close  that  it  may  be  fitly  described  as  a  union  with 
him.  (2)  It  expresses  symbolically  a  series  of  acts 
corresponding  to  the  redeeming  acts  of  Christ. 

"Immersion.  Death. 

*'  Submersion.         Burial  (the  ratification  of  death.) 

"  Emergence.  Resurrection. 

"All  these  the  Christian  has  to  undergo  in  a  moral 
and  spiritual  sense,  and  by  means  of  his  union  with 
Christ.  As  Christ  by  his  death  on  the  cross  ceased 
from  all  contact  with  sin,  so  the  Christian,  united 
with  Christ  in  his  baptism,  has  done  once  for  all  with 
sin,  and  lives  henceforth  a  reformed  life  dedicated  to 


316  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

God.  (This  at  least  is  the  ideal,  whatever  may  be  the 
reality).  Act  then  as  men  who  have  thrown  off  the 
dominion  of  sin.  Dedicate  all  your  powers  to  God. 
Be  not  afraid;  Law,  Sin's  ally,  is  superseded  in  its 
hold  over  you  by  grace." 

It  would  be  hard  to  find  in  the  English  language  a 
more  graphic  and  explicit  description  of  immersion 
and  its  meaning  than  Prof.  Sanday  has  given  in  this 
paraphrase  of  the  third  and  fourth  verses  of  this 
sixth  chapter  of  Romans. 

46.  "And  they  continued  daily  with  one  accord  in 
the  temple,  and  breaking  bread  from  house  to  house, 
did  eat  their  meat  with  gladness." 

"  In  the  apostolic  period  the  Lord's  Supper  was 
celebrated  daily,  at  least  where  the  circumstances 
allowed  of  daily  worship.  After  the  manner  of  its 
institution  and  the  analogy  of  the  Jewish  feast  of  the 
Passover,  it  was  connected  with  a  simple  meal  of 
brotherly  love,  which  afterward  (first  in  Jude  12) 
came  to  be  called  'agape,'  or  love  feast.  Origin- 
ally this  arrangement  was  connected  in  the  church  at 
Jerusalem  with  the  community  of  goods',  the  Chris- 
tians considering  themselves  as  one  household.  The 
celebration  of  the  communion,  it  is  commonly  sup- 
posed, was  the  closing  of  the  daily  social  feast,  and 
the  earthly  food  was  thus  sanctified  by  the  heavenly 
bread  of  life.  Yet  it  is  possible  that  even  in  the 
apostolic  church,  as  in  the  second  century,  the  com- 
munion took  place  in  the  morning  and  the  love-feast 
in  the  evening.     Then  the  profanation  of  the  latter 


NOTES   AND   COMMENTS  317 

in  the  Corinthian  congregation  can  be  better  ex- 
plained; whereas  on  the  supposition  of  the  imme- 
diate union  of  the  two,  it  would  be  doubly  strange." 
— Schaff:  History  of  the  Apostolic  Church.  With 
this  Neander  and  Kurtz  and  Fisher  are  in  almost 
precise  agreement. 

CHAPTER    III. 

1.  "Now  Peter  and  John  went  up  together  into 
the  temple  at  the  hour  of  prayer,  being  the  ninth 
hour." 

Here  Luke  begins  the  history  of  the  first  persecu- 
tion, which  comprehends  this  and  the  following 
chapter  down  to  the  thirtj^-second  verse.  There  he 
resumes  the  history  of  the  Jerusalem  church.  (See 
Essay  HI.) 

The  continuance  of  the  Temple-worship  on  the 
part  of  the  apostles  is  to  be  noted.  Their  separation 
from  the  Jewish  cult  was  necessarily  gradual.  Per- 
haps the  Apostle  Paul  alone  saw  clearly  not  only  the 
liberty  but  the  need  of  an  entire  separation  from  it. 
However,  the  Apostles  Peter  and  John  make  their 
Temple-worship  the  occasion  of  the  exaltation  of 
Christ,  using  Moses  as  a  witness  for  him  (iii.  22), 
putting  his  name  above  every  name,  and  declaring 
his  exclusiveness  as  Savior  (iv.  10-12). 

7.  "His  feet  and  ancle  bones."  "The  words  in 
the  original  are  found  no  where  else  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament.    They  are  of  a  technical  character,  and  their 


318  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

use,  together  with  other  features  of  the  exact 
description  of  the  cripple's  case,  indicate  that  we 
have  before  us  the  language  of  the  physician  (Luke, 
the  beloved  physician,  Col.  iv.  14).  It  is  hardly  pos- 
sible to  dwell  too  strongly  on  indications  of  this  kind, 
which  indirectly  mark  in  the  history  something  which 
is  likewise  noted  in  the  Epistles.  Those  who  would 
assign  the  second  century  as  the  date  of  the  composi- 
tion of  the  Acts,  must  assume  for  their  supposed 
writer  the  keenest  appreciation  of  every  slight  allu- 
sion in  the  letters  of  Paul,  and  at  the  same  time  an 
ability  to  let  his  knowledge  peep  out  only  in  hints 
like  that  which  we  have  in  this  verse.  Such  persons, 
while  rejecting  all  that  is  miraculous  in  the  story  as 
we  have  it,  ask  us  to  believe  in  such  a  writer  as 
would  be  himself  almost  a  miracle  for  his  powers  of 
observation  and  the  skill  with  which  he  has  employed 
them." — Camhridge  Bible  for  Schools  and  Colleges. 
See  also  ch.  xxviii.  8.  The  argument  in  this  para- 
graph is  of  the  nature  of  that  used  with  such  com- 
plete effect  by  William  Paley  in  his  "Horoe  Paulina3," 
though  this  application  of  it  seems  not  to  have  been 
noted  by  him. 

19.  "Repent  ye  therefore,  and  turn  again" 
(Revised  Version).  **The  word  convert  has  received 
much  ongrowth  of  meaning  since  the  A.  V.  was 
made.  The  same  word  is  well  rendered  (xi.  21),  *A 
great  number  believed  and  turned  unto  the  Lord.'  " 
— Camhridge  Bible  for  Schools  and  Colleges. 

*'That  your  sins  may  be  blotted  out."     *'The  idea 


NOTES    AND    COMMENTS  319 

of  the  forgiveness  of  sins  is  here  represented  under 
the  figure  of  the  erasure  of  a  handwriting  (Col. 
ii.  14;  Ps.  li.  9;  Isa.  xliii.  25).  Baptism  is  not  here 
expressly  named  as  in  ii.  38,  but  was  now  understood 
of  itself,  seeing  that  not  long  before  thousands  were 
baptized;  and  the  thought  of  it  has  suggested  the 
figurative  expression  of  blotting  out,  namely,  by 
the  water  of  baptism.  The  causa  meritoria  of  the 
forgiveness  of  sins  is  contained  in  verse  18  (the 
suffering  of  Jesus);  the  causa  apprehendens  (faith) 
is  contained  in  the  required  repentance  and  conver- 
sion."— Meye7\'   Co^nmentary  on  Acts. 

*'When  the  times  of  refreshing  shall  come." 
*' Peter  conceives  that  the  times  of  refreshing  and  the 
Parousia  will  set  in  as  soon  as  the  Jewish  nation  is 
converted  to  the  acknowledgment  of  Jesus  as  Mes- 
siah. It  required  a  further  revelation  to  teach  him 
that  the  Gentiles  were  to  be  converted — and  that 
directly,  and  by  way  of  proselytism  —  to  Christ 
(ch.  x)." — Meyer. 

Light  is  thrown  upon  vv.  19-21  by  reference  to  ch. 
i.  6.  Evidently  the  Apostle  Peter  is  advancing,  but 
there  is  still  a  lingering  hope  that  the  Messiah  may 
yet  be  the  King  of  Israel.  Spite  of  this,  however, 
the  Holy  Spirit  leads  him  to  the  declaration  of  a 
purely  spiritual  Gospel  (v.  26). 

20.  **And  he  shall  send  Jesus  Christ."  "The 
reference  is  certainly  to  an  objective  and  not  subjec- 
tive advent.  It  is  a  matter  of  dispute  in  what  man- 
ner the    apostles    regarded    the    second   coming  of 


320  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

Christ.  In  all  they  were  so  engrossed  with  it  that 
they  lost  sight  of  intermediate  events;  it  was  the 
object  of  their  earnest  desire ;  the  period  was  indeed 
concealed  from  them,  but  they  continually  looked 
forward  to  it;  they  expected  it  as  that  which  might 
occur  at  any  moment.  Afterwards,  as  revelation 
disclosed  itself,  and  the  course  of  Providence  was 
developed,  they  did  not  expect  it  to  occur  in  their 
days.  Paul  especially  seems  to  have  regarded  it  as 
an  event  in  the  remote  future,  and  cautions  his  con- 
verts not  to  be  shaken  in  mind  or  to  be  troubled,  as 
that  the  day  of  Christ  was  at  hand  (II.  Thess.  ii.  2). 
The  precise  period  of  the  advent,  we  are  informed  by 
our  Lord,  formed  no  part  of  the  divine  revelation ; 
it  was  designedly  left  in  uncertainty  by  God." — 
Gloag :  Quoted  by  American  Editor  of  Meyer's  Com- 
mentary on  Acts. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

2.  "Being  grieved  that  they  taught  the  people." 
This  is  always  a  great  source  of  grief  to  such  conser- 
vatism as  takes  the  form  of  dogmatism  and  dema- 
gogism.  Too  much  popular  intelligence  is  not  con- 
genial to  kingcraft  and  priestcraft.  The  New  Testa- 
ment is  the  hand-book  of  Protestantism,  and  Christ- 
ianity is  fertile  of  democracy. 

'*  Other  religions  say.  Keep  the  people  in  the  dark. 
Christianity  says.  Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and 
preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature.     Other  religions 


NOTES    AND    COMMENTS  321 

draw  a  screen,  as  Pythagoras  lectured  from  behind  a 
curtain  to  his  disciples;  and  from  behind  a  screen 
they  mutter  their  unintelligible  incantations.  Chris- 
tianity lifts  its  banner,  throws  it  out  upon  the  willing 
wind,  and  on  it  is  written,  '  This  thing  was  not  done 
in  a  corner.'  By  the  compass  of  its  mission,  by  the 
universality  of  its  speech,  by  its  chivalry  of  philan- 
thropy, I  ask  you  to  adjudge  to  Christianity  the  palm 
of  all  the  religions  of  the  world.  Other  religions  are 
philosophies,  philosophies  only;  Christianity  is  a 
Gospel. ' ' — Joseph  Parher. 

7.  "By  what  power,  or  by  what  name  have  ye 
done  this?"  "Beware  of  that  point  of  thought  in 
which  you  turn  your  religion  into  a  piece  of  meta- 
physical inquiry.  It  is  at  that  point  that  Christianity 
is  often  defeated  in  her  most  beneficent  purposes. 
What  did  the  learned  men  say?  They  wanted  to  go 
into  the  ways  and  means,  and  to  analyze  what  we 
now  call  the  modus  operandi.  They  wanted  to  turn 
this  question  into  a  metaphysical  inquiry.  Instead  of 
accepting  the  man,  the  healed  man,  the  concrete, 
positive,  indisputable  fact,  they  wanted  to  lure  the 
apostles  and  those  who  followed  them  into  meta- 
physical quagmires  and  difficulties.  .  .  .  Chris- 
tianity rests  on  facts,  not  opinions."— Jose^i  Parker. 

13.  "Perceived  that  they  were  unlearned  and 
ignorant  men."  The  scribes  perceived  this  of  Peter 
and  John.  But  what  was  their  learning?  The 
knowledge  of  the  Mishna  and  the  Gemara,  the  tradi- 
tions  of   the   older   scribes,  the   Sopherim,  and   the 

21 


322  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

commentaries  upon  these  traditions.  They  had 
exalted  these  traditions  and  traditions  upon  tradi- 
tions above  the  law  of  Moses,  "making  the  law  of 
none  effect  by  them"  (Matt.  xv.  6).  The  tendency 
of  their  traditional  trifling  was  to  make  men  punc- 
tilious but  not  magnanimous.  The  most  insignificant 
affairs  of  life  were  regulated  by  absolute  laws,  and 
when  these  became  too  burdensome,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  Sabbath  laws,  they  resorted  to  casuistry  to  get  rid 
of  their  own  legalism,  thus  breeding  hypocrisy  side 
by  side  with  punctiliousness.  Hence  the  awful 
denunciation  of  the  Savior  in  the  twenty-third  chap- 
ter of  Matthew.  That  chapter  is  full  of  the  very 
thunders  and  lightnings,  the  withering  flashings  and 
threatenings  of  the  judgment  throne  of  the  Eternal, 
and  it  must  stand  forever  in  the  literature  of  the 
world  as  the  most  tremendous  and  appalling  rebuke 
upon  that  bigotry  and  hypocrisy  which  is  begotten  of 
tradition  and  pride  and  legalism  and  casuistry. 

The  following  is  Farrar's  characterization  of  the 
teaching  of  these  men  who  found  Peter  and  John 
"unlearned  and  ignorant."  "The  teaching  of  the 
scribes  was  narrow,  dogmatical,  material ;  it  was  cold 
in  manner,  frivolous  in  matter,  second-hand  and  iter- 
ative in  its  very  essense;  with  no  freshness  in  it,  no 
force,  no  fire:  servile  to  all  authority,  opposed  to  all 
independence;  at  once  erudite  and  foolish,  at  once 
contemptuous  and  mean,  full  of  balanced  inference 
and  orthodox  hesitancy  and  impossible  literalism; 
intricate  with  legal  pettiness  and  labyrinthine  system; 


NOTES   AND   COMMENTS  323 

elevating  mere  memory  above  genius,  and  repetition 
above  originality,  concerned  only  about  priests  and 
Pharisees,  in  temple  and  synagogue,  or  school,  or 
Sanhedrin,  and  mostly  occupied  with  things  infinite- 
ly little." 

**  The  Rabbinical  schools,"  according  to  the  same 
author,  *'  in  their  meddling,  carnal,  superficial  ^spirit 
of  word-weaving  and  letter-worship,  had  spun  large 
accumulations  of  worthless  subtlety  all  over  the 
Mosaic  law.  Among  other  things  they  had  wasted 
their  idleness  in  fantastic  attempts  to  count  and 
classify  and  weigh  and  measure  all  the  separate  com- 
mandments of  the  ceremonial  and  moral  law.  They 
had  come  to  the  sapient  conclusion  that  there  were 
248  aflirmative  precepts,  being  as  many  as  the  mem- 
bers of  the  human  body,  and  365  negative  precepts, 
being  as  many  as  the  arteries  and  veins,  or  the  days 
of  the  year;  the  total  being  613,  which  was  also  the 
number  of  the  letters  in  the  decalogue.  They  arrived 
at  the  same  result,  from  the  fact  that  the  Jews 
were  commanded  (Num.  xv.  38)  to  wear  fringes 
(tsitsith)  on  the  corners  of  their  tallith  bound  with 
a  thread  of  blue;  and  as  each  fringe  had  eight 
threads  and  five  knots,  and  the  letters  of  the  word 
tsitsith  makes  600,  the  total  number  of  command- 
ments was,  as  before,  613'." 

Mr.  J.  Paterson  Smyth,  who  is  a  generous  critic  of 
the  Talmud,  calls  it,  nevertheless,  "  A  vast  and  tan- 
gled mass  of  ancient  lore,"  and  says  that,  **  At  times 
the  reader,  wandering  through  the  pages  of  nonsense 


324  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

that  these  wise  sages  wrote,  will  feel  almost  a  sym- 
pathy with  the  belief  of  Carlyle,  that  nine  out  of 
ten  men  are  fools,  and  he  would  not  like  to  say  too 
much  about  the  tenth." 

"The  Mishna,"  says  Edersheim,  *' in  an  extreme- 
ly curious  section,  tells  us  how  on  Sabbaths  the 
Jewesses  of  Arabia  night  wear  their  long  veils,  and 
those  of  India  the  kerchief  round  the  head,  custom- 
ary in  those  countries,  without  incurring  guilt  of 
desecrating  the  holy  day  by  needlessly  carrying  what, 
in  the  eyes  of  the  law,  would  be  a  burden;  while  in 
the  rubric  for  the  Day  of  Atonement  we  have  it 
noted  that  the  dress  that  the  High  Priest  wore 
between  the  evenings  of  the  great  fast — that  is,  as 
the  afternoon  darkened  into  evening — was  of  the 
most   costly  Indian   stuff." 

The  Mishna  classifies  thirty-nine  different  kinds  of 
work  by  which  the  guilt  of  Sabbath-breaking  should 
be  incurred.  The  schools  of  Shammai  and  Hillel 
differed  as  to  whether  or  not  an  egg  laid  on  a  feast 
day  should  be  eaten  the  same  day,  Hillel  taking  the 
ground  that  it  should  not.  The  first  of  the  seven 
treatises  of  the  third  part  of  the  Mishna  djscusses 
the  law  found  in  Deut.  xxv.  5-9.  "Its  first  section 
may  give  a  good  idea  of  the  manner  of  the  Mishna. 
Fifteen  women  free  their  rival  wives  and  their  rival's 
rivals,  from  shoe-pulling  and  brother's  marriage  to 
the  world's  end.  HLs  daughter  (the  dead  brother's 
wife  being  the  daughter  of  a  surviving  brother), 
son's    daughter   or    daughter's    daughter;    his  wife's 


NOTES    AND    COMMENTS  325 

daughter,  wife's  son's  daughter,  or  wife's  daughter's 
daughter;  his  mother-in-law,  or  mother-in-law's 
mother,  father-in-law's  mother;  his  sister  on  the 
mother's  side,  mother's  sister,  or  wife's  sister,  and 
the  wife  of  his  brother  by  the  mother's  side,  and  the 
wife  of  his  brother  who  was  not  alive  at  the  same 
time  with  him,  and  his  daughter-in-law;  all  these 
free  their  rival's  wives.''— M' Clmtock  arid  Strong, 

Triflers  versed  in  such  lore  as  this  discovered  that 
Peter  and  John  were  "unlearned  and  ignorant  men!" 

*'  They  took  knowledge  of  them  that  they  had  been 
with  Jesus."  They  found  in  them  a  freedom,  bold- 
ness, and  originality  that  could  have  been  acquired 
only  in  the  school  of  Christ.  They  heard  from  these 
disciples  a  tone  of  authority  that  awoke  within  their 
guilty  souls  the  echoes  and  the  terrors  of  Christ's 
mighty  pleadings  and  warnings.  These  Spirit-moved 
men  appealed  directly  to  the  heart  of  nature,  to  the 
conscience  of  man,  and  the  throne  of  God.  Never  in 
Rabbinical  schools  could  they  have  learned  to  say, 
"  Whether  it  be  right  in  the  sight  of  God  to  hearken 
unto  you  more  than  unto  God,  judge  ye." 

32.  "  One  heart  and  one  soul ;  .  .  .  all  things 
common."  "Each  felt  that  he  held  his  possessions 
only  as  a  trust,  and  if  occasion  called  for  it  they  were 
to  be  given  up.  Such  love  toward  one  another  Christ 
had  foretold  (John  xiii.  35).  All  those  who  have 
sketched  a  perfect  society,  as  Plato  in  his  Republic, 
and  Sir  Thomas  More  in  his  Utopia,  have  placed 
among  their  regulations  this  kind  of   community  of 


326  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

goods  which  was  established  by  the  first  Christians. 
In  theory  it  is  the  perfection  of  a  commonwealth,  but 
there  is  need  of  perfection  in  the  citizens  before  it 
can  be  realized." — Cambridge  Bible  for  Schools  and 
Colleges. 

"There  is  in  many  of  the  aspirations  and  aims  of 
communism  a  certain  marked  sympathy  or  harmony 
with  the  ideals  of  Christianity.  What  is  best  in  it 
has  come  from  the  teachings  of  Galilee.  The  sense 
of  human  brotherhood  between  rich  and  poor,  the 
sympathy  with  the  unhappy  laboring  masses  of  the 
world,  the  duty  of  allowing  every  human  being 
the  highest  possible  use  of  his  faculties,  the  aversion 
to  the  deceit  and  fraud  so  often  characteristic  of 
commerce,  the  opposition  to  the  selfishness  of  com- 
petition, the  horror  of  war  of  the  Socialists,  the 
aspect  of  property  as  a  fund  for  the  good  of  all — all 
these  are  plainly  reflections  from  that  light  which 
shone  eighteen  centuries  ago  from  the  hills  of 
Judsea." — Charles  Loring  Brace, 

**  There  was  a  time  when  labor  leaders  were  chiefly 
prophets  of  future  Utopias.  High  ideals  are  of  great 
value.  Without  them  there  is  sure  to  be  low  achieve- 
ment. But  impossible  or  extravagant  ideals,  or  ideals 
whose  achievement  is  too  remote,  are  of  doubtful 
utility.  The  early  communistic  ideals  usually  repre- 
sent their  industrial  heaven  on  earth  as  achieved  with 
impossible  suddenness  and  impossible  sinlessness. 
Labor  leaders  have  abandoned  such  ideals,  but  their 


NOTES    AND    COMMENTS  ^27 

critics    are    still    bombarding    the    emi3ty   forts." — 
Crafts:     Practical  ChHstian  Sociology. 

Coinmuuism  has  been  proposed  as  a  panacea  for 
social  ills.  In  the  case  of  Ananias  (v.  1-5)  it  did  not 
cure  covetousness  and  lying.  If  ever  there  is  to  be 
a  successful  communistic  state  it  must  be  an  effect 
rather  than  a  cause.  Nevertheless,  is  there  not  much 
in  this  voluntary  communism  of  the  first  church  to 
cause  present-day  Christians,  looking  back  upon  it 
and  also  upon  the  world  around  them,  to  pause  and 
think,  and  possibly  pray?  '*  There  are  sad  children 
sitting  in  the  market-place,  who  indeed  cannot  say 
to  you,  We  have  piped  unto  you  and  you  have  not 
danced;  but  eternally  shall  say  to  you,  We  have 
mourned  unto  you  and  ye  have  not  lamented." — Rus- 
hin:  Crown  of  Wild  Olive,  Here  in  this  young 
church  was  a  state  so  intensely  spiritual  as  to  bring 
into  subjection  the  whole  material  side  of  life,  the 
directly  reverse  of  that  described  by  Tennyson — 

"  When  the  poor  are  hoveled  and  hustled   together ;  each  sex  like 
swine ; 
When  only  the  ledger  lives,  and  when  only  not  all  men  lie." 


328  STUDIES    IN   ACTS 


CHAPTER  Y. 

1-11.  The  account  of  Ananias  and  Sapphira  has 
an  evidential  value  which  is  thus  presented  in  the 
Cambridge  Bible  for  Schools:  **  The  narrative  with 
which  this  chapter  commences  is  one  which  none  but 
a  veracious  narrator  would  have  inserted  where  it 
stands.  The  last  chapter  concludes  with  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  unity  of  heart  and  soul  which  prevailed 
among  the  brethren,  and  expressly  notices  that  all 
were  filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit.  But  as  among  the 
Twelve  there  was  a  Judas,  so  into  the  infant  church 
there  had  intruded  two  at  least  whose  professions 
were  not  sincere,  and  who  were  unworthy  of  the  gifts 
of  grace  which,  with  the  rest,  they  had  received. 
The  o:ffense  of  Ananias  and  Sapphira  showed  con- 
tempt for  God,  vanity  and  ambition  in  the  offenders, 
and  utter  disregard  of  the  corruption  they  were 
bringing  into  the  society.  Such  sin,  committed  in 
spite  of  the  light  which  they  possessed,  called  for  a 
special  mark  of  the  Divine  indignation,  and  to  those 
who,  likewise  filled  with  the  Spirit,  knew  all  that  had 
been  done,  and  why  it  was  done,  there  is  no  shock 
produced  by  the  terrible  doom  of  the  sinners,  nor 
any  language  employed  in  the  narration  but  the 
plainest  and  simplest.  A  late  compiled  story  would 
have  enlarged  and  spoken  apologetically  on  the  rea- 
sons   for   such  judgment,  and  would  not  have  pre- 


NOTES   AND   COMMENTS  329 

sented    us    with    a    bare    recital    of     facts    without 
comment." 

**I  was  told  of  persons  who  were  supposed  to  be 
worth  five  and  twenty  thousand  pounds  that  at  the 
communion  of  the  Lord's  Table  never  contribute  a 
coin,  but  put  in  the  communion  card  alone.  Is  it 
possible?  Thy  money  perish  with  thee.  Keep  it; 
keep  it.  Take  it  in  the  coffin  with  thee.  Do  insist 
upon  having  it  there.  Make  a  pillow  of  it;  make  a 
footstool  of  it;  make  a  lining  of  it.  Keep  it,  thou 
whited  sepulcher!  Ananias  lied  without  speaking, 
and  that  is  the  worst  form  of  falsehood.  The  blun- 
dering speaker  of  a  lie  may  be  converted;  but  the 
actor  of  a  lie  can  only  be  killed.  ...  To  bring 
ray  piece,  and  lay  it  down  as  if  it  v/ere  all,  can  any 
atheist  stab  the  Christ  of  God  so  far  as  that?  O 
Church  of  the  living  God!  conversion  must  begin 
within  thee;  and  then  the  fire  will  burn,  and  throw 
out  its  happy  influence  upon  the  wide  circumference, 
and  there  shall  be  joy  in  the  presence  of  the  angels 
of  God  over  a  prodigal  Church,  repentant  and 
returned." — Joseph  Parker, 

13.  "And  of  the  rest  durst  no  man  join  himself  to 
them.'*  Already  the  church  was  a  strange,  great 
body.  It  was  unique  in  the  midst  of  a  nation  that 
was  unique.  It  had  appropriated  Solomon's  Porch 
as  its  place  of  worship,  and  there  daily,  in  the  cap- 
ital city  of  the  nation,  in  the  central  sanctuary  of  the 
nation,  surrounded  by  the  priests  and  the  populace 
that  had  murdered  Jesus,  in  the  midst  of  multitudes 


330  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

of  native  and  foreign  worshipers,  its  members 
preached  and  prophesied  and  wrought  miracles,  and 
rebuked  lying  and  covetousness  with  the  death  pen- 
alty, and  overawed  the  rulers,  and  were  magnified  of 
the  people.  They  were  a  city  set  on  a  hill.  Christ, 
by  the  price  of  his  blood,  had  not  lit  this  candle  to  be 
put  under  a  bushel.  Within  one  year  the  Jews  of 
the  whole  world  must  have  known  of  this  church  and 
its  majestic,  miraculous  presence  in  their  temple 
courts. 

34.  **  Gamaliel,  a  doctor  of  the  law."  Grandson 
and  disciple  of  the  great  Hillel.  At  his  feet  Paul  sat 
(xxii.  3).  He  was  a  member  of  the  Sanhedrin  dur- 
ing the  reigns  of  Tiberias,  Caligula,  and  Claudius, 
and  was  probably  for  some  time  president  of  the 
council.  The  school  of  Hillel  was  more  liberal  than 
that  of  Shammai,  and  the  advice  of  Gamaliel  on  this 
occasion  is  that  of  a  judicial  mind.  It  is  possible 
that  the  Christian  church  owes  much  more  to  this 
man  than  appears  in  this  chapter.  Was  it  from  this 
man  that  the  Apostle  Paul  received  the  germs  of  that 
free  and  judicial  style  of  thought  that  gave  him  such 
a  transcendent  place  among  the  apostles,  and  made 
him  the  father  of  Gentile  Christianity?  Such  a  mind 
when  enlightened  by  the  Gospel  must  also  have 
among  its  forces  revulsion  from  the  endless  and 
worse  than  trivial  disputes  that  engaged  these  two 
great  schools.  About  the  egg  laid  on  the  Sabbath 
the  schools  of  Hillel  and  Shammai  disputed  till  there 
grew  from  their  discussions  a  whole  treatise  of  the 


NOTES   AND   COMMENTS  331 

Talmud,  occupying  seventy-nine  pages,  and  entitled 
Beza,  i,  e.,  The  Egg.  But  why  should  we  smile  at 
these  ancient  conscientious  triflers?  What  a  treatise 
could  be  gathered  up  from  current  religious  (?)  lit- 
erature, and  entitled,  not  The  Egg,  but  The  Organ! 
or  The  Vestments !  or  The  Posture !  or  The  Validity 
of  Orders !  or  Hooks  and  Eyes !  or  Standing  Collars ! 
or  The  Sisters'  Caps!  or  The  Mustache!  These  are 
burning  questions  in  respective  schools  of  present- 
day  triflers  and  traditionalists,  the  children  by  direct 
descent  of  spiritual  punctiliousness  of  the  pot  wash- 
ers and  gnat  strainers  and  neglecters  of  love  and 
judgment  and  mercy  that  «Tesus  condemned. 

"As  to  the  speech  of  Gamaliel,  I  accept  it  every 
word.  Gamaliel  gives  me  the  only  conditions  the 
church  ever  ought  to  ask  for:  To  be  left  alone  to 
carry  out  her  own  policy,  and  to  realize  the  results  of 
her  own  conception  of  faith.  As  a  Christian  teacher 
I  have  no  right  to  ask  to  be  heard  at  the  expense  of 
any  other  man.  Let  Theudas  speak,  let  Judas  of 
Galilee  speak,  and  when  they  are  done,  let  the  Chris- 
tian speaker  make  his  appeal,  and  'the  God  that 
answereth  by  fire  let  him  be  God.'  Let  Socrates 
conduct  his  dialogue,  let  Seneca  read  his  moral 
proverbs ;  let  every  man  have  all  the  hearing  which 
he  demands,  and  when  they  are  done  let  us  hear 
what  Christ  of  Nazareth  has  to  say,  and  *the  God 
that  answereth  by  fire  let  him  be  God.'  Christianity 
is  nothing  if  it  is  not  heroically  fearless." — Joseph 
Parker. 


332  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

36,  37.  Theudas  and  Judas.  Josephus,  as  quoted 
in  the  Cambridge  Bible  for  Schools,  says:  **At  this 
time  (z.  e.,  in  the  days  when  Varus  was  president  of 
Syria)  there  were  ten  thousand  other  disorders  in 
Judaea,  which  were  like  tumults.  .  .  Judsea  was 
full  of  robberies,  and  whenever  the  several  compa- 
nies of  the  rebels  could  light  upon  any  one  to  lead 
them,  he  was  created  a  king  immediately."  Here  is 
a  glimpse  at  the  desperadoes  of  the  time,  who,  but 
for  the  strong  hand  of  Rome,  would  have  ruined 
everything.  Contrast  with  them  the  leadership  of 
Jesus,  and  the  ministries  of  his  disciples. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

1.  "And  in  those  days,  when  the  number  of  disci- 
ples was  increased."  With  the  growing  church  there 
came  perplexing  problems,  and  there  was  no  law  for 
their  solution.  In  this  case  the  apostles,  led  by  the 
Holy  Spirit,  resorted  to  the  principle  of  expediency, 
and  appointed  a  committee  of  seven.  This  is  the 
beginning  of  the  office  and  work  of  the  deacons, 
though  these  seven  men  are  not  called  deacons.  The 
name  of  the  office  arises  from  the  Greek  word  used 
by  the  apostles  in  proposing  their  appointment.  It 
is  used  by  Paul  as  the  designation  of  an  office  in 
I.  Tim.  iii.  10  and  13.  The  first  churches,  how- 
ever, allowed  great  liberty  in  official  matters.  One  of 
these  men,  Philip,  is  better  known  as  an  evangelist 
than   as   a   deacon.     According  to   Acts   xi.  30,   the 


NOTES   AND   COMMENTS  333 

elders  of  the  Jerusalem  church  had  charge  of  the 
charities.  Indeed,  the  New  Testament  references  to 
men  and  their  offices  and  their  work  are  so  varied  as 
to  indicate  that  the  spirit  of  love  and  the  rule  of 
expediency  were  the  controlling  principles.  John 
Ruskin  has  spoken  with  great  spiritual  insight  upon 
this  question,  and  his  words  may  be  taken  with  very 
slight  grains  of  salt. 

"The  church  is  built  upon  the  foundation  of  the 
apostles  and  prophets,  Jesus  Christ  himself  being  the 
corner-stone.  Well,  we  cannot  have  two  founda- 
tions, so  we  can  have  no  more  apostles  or  prophets. 
Then,  as  for  the  other  needs  of  the  church  in  its 
edifying  on  this  foundation,  there  are  all  manner  of 
things  to  be  done  daily, — rebukes  to  be  given;  com- 
fort to  be  brought;  threatonings  to  be  executed; 
charities  to  be  ministered;  and  the  men  who  do  these 
things  are  called,  and  call  themselves,  with  absolute 
indifference,  deacons,  bishops,  elders,  evangelists, 
according  to  what  they  are  doing  at  the  time  of 
speaking.  St.  Paul  almost  always  calls  himself  a 
deacon;  Peter  calls  himself  an  elder  (I.  Pet.  v.  1), 
and  Timothy,  generally  understood  to  be  addressed 
as  a  bishop,  is  called  a  deacon  (I.  Tim.  iv.  6) — for- 
bidden to  rebuke  an  elder  (v.  1),  and  exhorted  to  do 
the  work  of  an  evangelist  (II.  Tim.  iv.  5).  But 
there  is  one  thing  which,  as  officers,  or  as  separate 
from  the  rest  of  the  flock,  they  never  call  them- 
selves,— which  it  would  have  been  impossible,  as  so 
separate,  they  ever   should  have   called    themselves; 


334  STUDIES    IN    ACTS 

that  is — PRIESTS.  It  would  have  been  just  as  possi- 
ble for  the  clergy  of  the  early  Church  to  call  them- 
selves Levites,  as  to  call  themselves  ( ex  officio ) 
priests.  The  whole  function  of  priesthood  was,  on 
Christmas  morning,  at  once  and  forever  gathered 
into  His  Person  who  was  born  in  Bethlehem;  and 
thenceforward  all  who  are  united  with  Him,  and  who 
with  Him  make  sacrifice  of  themselves,  that  is  to  say, 
all  members  of  the  invisible  church  become  at  the 
instant  of  their  conversion,  priests,  and  are  so  called 
in  I.  Pet.  ii.  5  and  Rev.  i.  6  and  xx.  6,  where,  ob- 
serve, there  is  no  possibility  of  limiting  the  expres- 
sion to  the  clergy;  the  conditions  of  priesthood  being 
simply  having  been  loved  by  Christ,  and  washed  in 
his  blood.  The  blasphemous  claim  on  the  part  of 
the  clergy  of  being  more  priests  than  the  godly  laity 
— that  is  to  say,  of  having  a  higher  holiness  than  the 
holiness  of  being  one  with  Christ, — is  altogether  a 
Romanist  heresy,  dragging  after  it,  or  having  its 
origin  in,  the  other  heresies  respecting  the  sacrificial 
power  of  the  church  officer,  and  his  repeating  the 
oblation  of  Christ,  and  so  having  power  to  absolve 
from  sin; — with  all  the  other  endless  and  miserable 
falsehoods  of  the  papal  hierarchy;  falsehoods  for 
which,  that  there  might  be  no  shadow  of  excuse,  it 
has  been  ordained  by  the  Holy  Spirit  that  no  Chris- 
tian minister  shall  once  call  himself  a  priest  from  one 
end  of  the  New  Testament  to  the  other,  except 
together  with  his  flock." — John  Ruskin:  Construc- 
tion of  Sheep/olds. 


NOTES    AND    COMMENTS  335 

2.  "It  is  not  reason  (pleasing)  that  we  should 
leave  the  word  of  God  to  serve  tables."  The  move- 
ment for  the  appointment  of  the  deacons  is  not 
placed  on  the  basis  of  law,  or  precedent,  or  revela- 
tion even,  but  of  what  is  pleasing  (the  Greek  word 
means  that);  proper,  we  may  say;  expedient,  is 
Paul's  word.  A  division  of  labor  was  proper.  It 
was  not  proper  that  the  apostles  should  become  dea- 
cons of  tables,  but  that  they  should,  praying  contin- 
ually, be  deacons  of  the  Word.  The  mechanism  of 
this  church  was  ruled  by  prayer  and  love;  it  was 
therefore  flexible,  and  therefore  adaptable  to  emer- 
gencies, and  therefore  capable  of  continued  enlarge- 
ment in  continued  unity.  Dogmatism  and  legalism 
and  unloveliness  at  this  point  would  have  divided 
the  church. 

Side  by  side  with  the  care  of  the  apostles  for  the 
preaching  of  the  Word  was  their  care  for  neglected 
widows.  Could  the  Apostle  James  have  had  this 
early  experience  in  mind  when  he  defined  *'pure 
religion  and  undefiled?  " 

7.  "A  great  company  of  the  priests  became  obedi- 
ent to  the  faith."  *'  No  fact  recorded  by  Luke  shows 
so  strikingly  the  effect  of  the  Gospel  upon  the  popu- 
lar mind  in  Jerusalem." — Prof.  J.  W.  McGarvey. 

With  the  increase  of  influence  came  intensity  of 
opposition.  Here  begins  the  record  of  the  persecu- 
tion and  martyrdom  of  Stephen.     (See  Essay  IV.) 


336  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 


CHAPTER  VII. 

1.  "Then  said  the  high  priest,  Are  these  things 
SO? "  For  a  moment  the  Sanhedrin  seemed  over- 
awed by  that  transfigured  face  of  which  Augustine 
has  written  as  though  himself  enraptured  by  it:  **  O 
lamb,  foremost  of  the  flock  of  Christ,  fighting  in  the 
midst  of  wolves,  following  after  the  Lord,  but  still  at 
a  distance  from  him,  and  already  the  angel's  friend! 
Yes,  how  clearly  was  he  the  angel's  friend,  who, 
while  in  the  very  midst  of  wolves,  still  seemed  like  an 
angel ;  for  so  transfigured  was  he  by  the  rays  of  the 
sun  of  Righteousness,  that  even  to  his  enemies  he 
seemed  a  being  not  of  this  world." 

The  evidential  value  of  the  speech  called  forth  by 
this  question  has  been  noticed  and  emphasized  by 
Meyer.  "This  speech  bears  in  its  contents  and  tone 
the  impress  of  its  being  original.  For  the  long  and 
somewhat  prolix  historical  narrative  (vv.  2-47),  in 
which  the  rhetorical  character  remains  so  much  in  the 
background,  and  even  the  apologetic  element  is  dis- 
cernible throughout  only  indirectly,  cannot — so  pecu- 
liar and  apparently  irrelevant  to  the  situation  is  much 
of  its  contents — be  merely  put '  into  the  mouth  of 
Stephen,  but  must  in  its  characteristic  nature  and 
course  have  come  from  his  own  mouth.  If  it  were 
sketched  after  mere  tradition  or  acquired  informa- 
tion, or  from  a  quite  independent  ideal  point  of  view, 
then   either  the   historical   part   would  be  placed  in 


NOTES    AND   COMMENTS  337 

more  direct  relation  to  the  points  of  the  charge  and 
brought  into  rhetorical  relief,  or  the  whole  plan 
would  shape  itself  otherwise  in  keeping  with  the  ques- 
tion put  in  verse  1 ;  the  striking  power  and  boldness 
of  the  speech,  which  only  break  forth  in  the  smallest 
portion  (vv.  48-53),  would  be  more  diffused  over  the 
whole,  and  the  historical  mistakes — which  have  noth- 
ing surprising  in  them  in  the  case  of  a  discourse 
delivered  on  the  spur  of  the  moment — would  hardly 
occur." 

The  same  commentator  censures  Bruno  Bauer  for 
having  gone  "to  the  extreme  of  frivolous  criticism" 
in  rejecting  the  speech  as  fabricated,  and  the  circum- 
stances of  it,  and  even  the  death  of  Stephen.  He 
supposes  it  to  have  been  committed  to  writing  imme- 
diately after  its  delivery  by  an  earnest  ear-witness, 
and  copies  of  it  to  have  been  circulated,  from  one  of 
which  Luke  made  his  report. 

2.  Stephen  locates  the  call  of  Abraham  in  Meso- 
potamia. Gen.  xii.  1  locates  it  in  Haran.  (See  also 
Gen.  xi.  31).  Most  commentators  suppose  that  Ste- 
phen refers  to  an  earlier  call  barely  hinted  at  in  Gen. 
XV.  7.  Meyer  contents  himself  with  saying  that  in  the 
haste  of  his  extemporized  speech  Stephen  made  a 
mistake. 

6.  *'Four  hundred  years."  The  speaker  puts  a 
round  number  for  the  exact  one,  which  is  four  hun- 
dred and  thirty  (Ex.  xii.  40;  Gal.  iii.  17). 

*'This  period  of  four  hundred  years  is  taken  by 
Stephen   from    Gen.  xv.  13,  and   is   the   time  during 

23 


338  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

which  the  seed  of  Abraham  sojourned,  not  including 
the  period  of  his  own  sojourning  before  the  birth  of 
Isaac."— Pro/.  J.  W.  McGarvey.  *^The  period  of 
four  hundred  and  thirty  years  embraces  the  time  from 
Abraham's  immigration  into  Canaan  until  the  de- 
parture out  of  Egypt." — Hackett. 

16.  Meyer's  bold  solution  of  the  difficulties  in  this 
verse,  as  in  verse  2,  is  that  Stephen  made  mistakes 
respecting  Abraham's  purchase  and  the  burial  place 
of  Jacob.  Jacob,  not  Abraham,  bought  the  ground 
of  Sychem,  and  Joseph,  not  Jacob,  was  buried  there, 
whereas  Jacob  was  buried  in  the  cave  of  Machpelah, 
which  Abraham  bought  of  Ephron  the  Hittite.  The 
American  editor  of  Meyer's  commentary  says,  in 
attempted  explanation  of  the  difficulties  of  verse  16, 
*'The  following  reading  has  been  suggested,  which 
requires  only  that  an  ellipsis  be  supplied :  'And  were 
carried  into  Sychem,  and  were  laid,  some  of  them, 
Jacob  at  least,  in  the  sepulcher  that  Abraham  bought 
for  a  sum  of  money;  and  others  of  them  in  that 
bought  of  the  sons  of  Emmor,  the  father  of  Sychem.' 
The  sketch  is  drawn  with  great  brevity,  and  the  facts 
greatly  compressed,  doubtless  clearly  apprehended 
by  those  to  whom  they  were  stated,  though  not  easy 
to  disentangle  and  arrange  now." 

Other  commentators  seek  to  amend  the  text,  and 
write  Jacob  instead  of  Abraham  in  verse  16.  It  is  a 
troublesome  verse. 

31.  ''The  voice  of  the  Lord."  "It  will  be  seen 
that  the  angel  of  Jehovah  (verse  30;  Ex.  iii.  2)  is 


NOTES   AND    COMMENTS  339 

here  represented  as  Jehovah  himself.  Examples  of  a 
similar  transition  from  one  name  to  the  other  often 
occur  in  the  Old  Testament.  It  has  been  argued 
from  this  usage,  as  well  as  on  other  ground,  that  the 
Revealer  under  the  ancient  dispensation  was  identical 
with  the  Revealer  or  Logos  under  the  New  Dispensa- 
tion. ' ' — Hackett. 

Too  much,  however,  should  not  be  built  upon  such 
literary  expedients.  An  angel  from  God,  speaking 
for  God,  might  very  naturally  personate  God. 

37-40.  In  these  verses  the  direct  aim  of  Stephen's 
speech  becomes  apparent.     (Cf.  51). 

42.  "Then  God  turned  and  gave  them  up  to  wor- 
ship the  host  of  heaven."  God  gave  them  up  to 
star- worship.  "  By  way  of  punishment  for  that  bull- 
worship,  according  to  the  idea  of  sin  being  punished 
by  sin.  The  assertion,  often  repeated  since  the  time 
of  Chrysostom  and  Theophylact,  that  only  the  divine 
permission  or  withdrawal  of  grace  is  here  denoted,  is 
at  variance  with  the  positive  expression  and  true 
Biblical  conception  of  the  divine  retribution." — 
Meyer. 

43.  *' Moloch."  According  to  Jewish  tradition, 
from  what  source  we  know  not,  the  image  of  Moloch 
was  of  brass,  hollow  within,  and  was  situated  without 
Jerusalem.  Kimchi  (on  II.  Kings  xxiii.  10)  describes 
it  as  set  within  seven  chapels,  and  whoso  offered  to 
him  fine  flour,  they  open  to  him  one  of  them;  whoso, 
turtle  doves  or  young  pigeons,  they  open  to  him  two; 
a  lamb,  they  open  to  him  three;  a  ram,  four;  a  calf. 


340  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

five;  an  ox,  six;  and  to  whosoever  offered  his  son, 
they  opened  to  him  seven.  And  his  face  was  that  of 
a  calf,  and  his  hands  stretched  forth  like  a  man  who 
opens  his  hands  to  receive  something  of  his  neighbor. 
And  they  kindled  it  with  fire,  and  the  priests  took 
the  babe  and  put  it  into  the  hands  of  Moloch,  and 
the  babe  gave  up  the  ghost.  And  why  was  it  called 
Tophet  or  Hinnom?  Because  they  used  to  make  a 
noise  with  drums  (tophim)  that  the  father  might  not 
hear  the  cry  of  the  child  and  have  pity  upon  him  and 
return  to  him.  Hinnom,  because  the  babe  wailed, 
and  the  noise  of  his  wailing  went  up." — M^Clintock 
and  Strong. 

Kurtz,  in  speaking  of  the  anticipations  of  religious 
truth,  *'many  of  which  are  little  better  than  carica- 
ture," in  pagan  systems,  says,  "  To  this  class  belongs 
the  offering  of  human  victims  which  has  been  prac- 
ticed in  all  religions  of  nature  without  exception, — 
a  terrible,  and  to  some  extent  prophetic  cry  of  agony 
from  God-forsaken  man,  which  is  first  toned  down 
on  Golgotha  to  hymns  of  joy  and  thanksgiving." 

The  Israelites  seemed  prone  to  these  "  religions  of 
nature,"  and  they  did  not  hesitate  at  the  awful  ex- 
treme of  human  sacrifice  (II.  Kings  xxiii.  10;  Jer. 
vii.  31;  xix.  5).  This  throws  a  side-light  upon  the 
rigid  prohibition  of  idolatry,  and  of  intermarriage 
with  idolaters  in  the  Mosaic  Law  (Ex.  xxxiv.  15,  16). 

55.  *'He  beheld  Jesus  as  he  raised  himself  up 
from  God's  throne  of  light,  and  stands  ready  for  the 
saving  reception  of  the  martyr.     The  prophetic  basis 


NOTES   AND   COMMENTS  341 

of  this  vision  in  the  soul  of  Stephen  is  Dan.  vii.  13." 
— Meyer. 

This  author  also  censures  certain  critics  who  think 
that  Stephen  only  gave  expression  to  "his  firm  con- 
viction of  the  glory  of  Christ  and  of  his  own  impend- 
ing admission  into  heaven,"  or  that  "he  had  seen  a 
dazzling  cloud  as  the  symbol  of  the  presence  of 
God,"  saying,  "They  convert  his  utterance  at  this 
lofty  moment  into  a  flourish  of  rhetoric." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

lo  "At  that  time  there  was  a  great  persecution 
against  the  church  that  was  at  Jerusalem.  And  they 
were  all  scattered  abroad  throughout  the  regions  of 
Judaea  and  Samaria,  except  the  apostles." 

Here  begins  a  new  movement  in  the  church.  This 
persecution  was  attended  with  historic  consequences. 
Chapters  viii.  and  ix.,  or,  as  Prof.  J.  M.  Stifler 
prefers  to  state  it,  chapters  vi.  to  ix.  inclusive, 
form  a  section  of  the  book,  of  which  he  writes  as 
follows:  "Pentecost  is  five  or  six  years  in  the  past, 
and  the  Risen  Christ  has  not  yet  been  preached  out 
of  the  sight  of  Herod's  temple.  The  disciples  had 
been  left  here  long  enough  to  test  whether  Israel 
would  repent  and  secure  the  promise  spoken  by 
Peter,  *  That  he  may  send  the  Christ  who  has  been 
appointed  for  you,  even  Jesus.'  .  .  .  Long  as  the 
church  had  now  existed,  and  multiplied  in  numbers 
as  it  was,  not  a  single  Gentile  had  been  invited  to 


342  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

cross  its  threshold.  The  door  is  about  to  be  opened 
to  them.  The  next  few  months  will  witness  a  revolu- 
tion more  significant  than  any  seen  before  or  since. 
History  was  never  made  so  fast.  The  barriers  of  the 
ages  are  to  be  broken  down,  and  the  God  of  the  Jews 
is  to  be  accepted  by  the  nations.  Our  section  gives 
an  account  of  the  first  long  stride  in  this  direction. 
It  tells  of  the  opposition  aroused  by  Stephen,  gives 
his  speech  before  the  council,  his  death,  and  the 
dreadful  persecution  that  followed  the  same  day  and 
scattered  the  church;  the  conversion  of  the  half 
heathen  Samaritans  and  the  Ethiopian  prince,  and 
finally  the  miraculous  calling  and  cleansing  of  an- 
other man  for  the  apostolate.  If  the  church's  work 
was  to  be  broadened,  there  must  be  more  laborers, 
and  laborers  of  broader  views.  We  get  them  in 
Stephen,  Philip  and  Saul.  The  settlement  of  the 
trouble  about  the  daily  ministration  of  the  poor  fund 
was  the  entering  wedge  to  the  new  movement.  That 
settlement  certainly  brought  the  Hellenistic  Jews  to 
the  front.  The  names  of  the  seven  are  all  Greek. 
The  last  one  in  the  list  is  a  Jew  by  religion,  but  not 
by  blood — 'a  proselyte  of  Antioch.'  This  little  note 
is  rich  in  meaning.  We  find  Stephen,  as  soon  as  he 
entered  upon  his  office,  preaching  in  the  Hellenistic 
synagogues.  Plainly  these  foreign  Jews  with  their 
more  liberal  thoughts  had  been  suppressed.  There 
must  have  been  strong  feeling,  or  why  were  their 
widows  neglected  while  the  home-born,  Jewish  wid- 
ows were  regularly  fed?     How  could   these  foreign 


NOTES   AND   COMMENTS  343 

Jews,  with  their  hearts  full  of  God's  love,  forget 
their  brethren  in  distant  countries  through  the 
Roman  Empire?  If  they  had  not  acted  as  yet  they 
must  have  thought  much.  And  seven  of  them  hav- 
ing been  put  into  the  front  now,  God  soon  gave  them 
an  opportunity  for  more  extended  work.  They  set 
out  with  a  few  loaves  to  feed  their  widows.  It  was 
not  long  till  they  had  to  feed  the  world  with  the 
bread  of  life." 

2.  "Devout  men."  "Not  Christians,  but  Jews 
who,  in  their  pious  conscientiousness,  and  with  a 
secret  inclination  to  Christianity,  had  the  courage  to 
honor  the  innocence  of  him  who  had  been  stoned." — 
Meye7\ 

4.  "  They  that  were  scattered  abroad  went  every- 
w^here  preaching  the  word."  "In  the  case  of  those 
dispersed,  and  even  in  that  of  Philip,  preaching  was 
not  tied  to  an  existing  special  office.  With  their 
preaching  probably  there  was  at  once  practically 
given  the  new  ministry,  that  of  the  evangelists 
(xxi.  8;  Eph.  iv.  11),  as  circumstances  required, 
under  the  guidance  of  the  Spirit." — Meyer. 

5-25.  "The  history  of  the  evangelization  of 
Samaria." 

It  is  attended  with  three  noteworthy  circum- 
stances: The  ready  belief  of  the  Samaritans,  and 
their  baptism,  "both  men  and  women"  (12),  the 
false  conversion  of  Simon  the  sorcerer,  and  the  com- 
ing of  Peter  and  John  from  Jerusalem,  in  answer  to 


344  STUDIES    IN   ACTS 

whose  prayers  the  Holy  Spirit  was  given  to  the  be- 
lieving Samaritans. 

This  Simon  *'has  been  stigmatized  by  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  church  fathers  as  the  patriarch  of  all 
heretics,  especially  of  the  heathen  Gnostics.  .  .  . 
The  opinion  of  the  Samaritans  regarding  him,  which 
was  no  doubt  the  mere  echo  of  his  own  boastful 
declaration,  that  he  was  *the  great  power  of  God,' 
itself  suggests  the  Gnostic  seons  and  emanations, 
those  singular  caricatures  of  the  mystery  of  the  incar- 
nation. According  to  the  statement  of  Irenseus, 
Simon  gave  himself  out  as  the  supreme  power,  and 
blasphemously  boasted  that  he  appeared  among  the 
Samaritans  as  Father,  among  the  Jews  as  Son,  and 
among  other  nations  as  Holy  Spirit." — S chaff. 

18.  "The  motive  of  his  proposal  was  selfishness 
in  the  interests  of  his  magical  trade ;  very  naturally 
he  valued  the  communication  of  the  Spirit,  to  the 
inward  experiences  of  which  he  was  a  stranger,  only 
according  to  the  surprising  outward  phenomena,  and 
hence  saw  in  the  apostles  the  possessors  of  a  higher 
magical  power  still  unknown  to  himself,  the  posses- 
sion of  which  he  as  a  sorcerer  coveted." — Meyer. 

*'The  sorcery  which  Simon  and  men  like  him  used 
was  probably  no  more  than  a  greater  knowledge  of 
some  of  the  facts  of  chemistry  by  which  they  at  first 
attracted  attention,  and  then  traded  on  the  credulity 
of  those  who  came  to  consult  them.  From  the  time 
of  their  sojourn  in  Egypt  the  Jews  had  known  of 
such    impostors,    and   in   their  traditional    literature 


NOTES   AND   COMMENTS  345 

some  of  the  'wisdom'  of  Moses  partakes  of  this 
character."— CamSncZgre  Bible  for  Schools  and  Col- 
leges. 

This  man  could  not  get  above  the  mammonistic 
basis  of  life.  Sorcery  was  with  him  a  lucrative  busi- 
ness. He  was  baptized  from  a  business  standpoint. 
With  an  eye  to  business  he  wondered  at  the  miracles 
and  signs  wrought  by  Philip  (13).  He  tried  to  drive 
a  shrewd  bargain  with  Peter,  offering  him  money  for 
the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  the  gift  of  imparting 
the  Spirit,  as  another  trick  in  his  trade.  His  shal- 
lowness, his  blasphemy,  and  his  mammonism  have 
their  merited  rebuke  from  the  Apostle  Peter  (20),  to 
w^hom  in  his  genuineness  they  were  utterly  repug- 
nant. 

26-40.  The  conversion  of  the  Ethiopian  officer 
is  a  typical  one  in  every  respect.  It  is  carefully 
detailed.  There  is  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  by 
Philip.  There  is  reception  of  it,  and  confession  of  it 
by  the  eunuch;  there  is  the  baptism,  and  the  subse- 
quent rejoicing. 

37.  '*  This  verse  is  wanting  in  the  best  authorities. 
The  most  reliable  manuscripts  and  versions  testify 
against  it.  The  few  copies  that  contain  the  words 
read  them  variously.  Meyer  suggests  that  they  may 
have  been  taken  from  some  baptismal  liturgy,  and 
added  here  that  it  might  not  appear  that  the  eunuch 
was  baptized  without  the  evidence  of  his  faith."— 
Hackett. 


346  STUDIES    IN    ACTS 

'*  It  i8  nothing  else  than  an  old  addition  for  the 
sake  of  completeness." — Meyer. 

''This  verse  has  been  used  chiefly  for  the  purpose 
of  determining  the  confession  which  was  made  origin- 
ally by  candidates  for  immersion.  The  fact  that  it  is 
an  interpolation  must  modify  the  argument  on  this 
subject,  but  cannot  invalidate  it.  The  fact  that  such 
a  confession  as  is  here  put  into  the  mouth  of  the 
eunuch  was  uniformly  required  by  the  apostles  is 
evident  from  other  passages  of  Scripture.  It  is  quite 
certain  that  it  was  confessed  by  Timothy.  Paul  says 
to  him  (I.  Tim.  vi.  13),  'Fight  the  good  fight  of 
faith;  lay  hold  on  eternal  life,  unto  which  you  were 
called,  and  did  confess  the  good  confession  before 
many  witnesses.'  This  confession  was  made  at  the 
beginning  of  his  religious  career;  for  it  is  connected 
with  his  call  to  eternal  life.  It  is  the  same  confes- 
sion which  is  attributed  to  the  eunuch,  for  Paul 
immediately  adds:  'I  charge  thee  before  God,  who 
gives  life  to  all  things,  and  Jesus  Christ,  who  bore 
witness  under  Pontius  Pilate,  to  the  good  confession,' 
etc.  Now,  what  is  here  called  the  good  confession, 
is  certainly  the  confession  that  he  was  the  Christ, 
made  before  the  Sanhedrin  under  Pontius  Pilate. 
But  this  is  identified,  by  the  terms  employed,  with 
the  confession  that  Timothy  made,  which  is  also  the 
good  confession." — Prof.  J.  W.  McGarvey, 

"Certainly  in  the  'preached  unto  him  Jesus '  (36) 
there  was  comprehended  also  instruction  concerning 
baptism . ' ' — Meyer. 


NOTES   AND   COMMENTS  347 

Hackett  enumerates  three  places  on  the  ancient 
roads  from  Jerusalem  to  Gaza  where  there  was  suffi- 
cient water  for  an  immersion. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

1-22.  "  It  is  impossible  to  exaggerate  the  impor- 
tance of  St.  Paul's  conversion  as  one  of  the  evidences 
of  Christianity.  That  he  should  have  passed  by  one 
flight  of  conviction  not  only  from  darkness  to  light, 
but  from  one  direction  of  life  to  the  very  opposite, 
is  not  only  characteristic  of  the  man,  but  evidential 
of  the  power  and  significance  of  Christianity.  That 
the  same  man  who  just  before  was  persecuting  Chris- 
tianity with  the  most  violent  hatred,  should  come  all 
at  once  to  believe  in  him  whose  followers  he  had 
been  seeking  to  destroy,  and  that  in  this  faith  he 
should  become  '  a  new  creature  ' — what  is  this  but  a 
victory  which  Christianity  owed  to  nothing  but  the 
spell  of  its  own  inherent  power?" — Farrar. 

Various  theories  have  been  resorted  to  by  the 
hyper-higher  critics  to  rid  themselves  of  the  miracle 
of  conversion  recorded  in  these  verses,  and  affirmed 
and  reaffirmed  by  the  apostle  himself  in  chapters 
xxii.  and  xxvi.  In  attempted  explanation  of  the 
vision  on  the  way  to  Damascus  they  hesitate  between 
a  sunstroke  and  a  thunderstorm!  Sunstrokes  and 
thunderbolts  do  not  usually  produce  such  characters 
as  that  of  Paul  the  apostle. 


348  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

**  Saul  of  Tarsus  has  refused  to  melt  away  in  the 
crucible  of  these  critical  fires.  This  man,  whatever 
may  be  said  of  the  other  apostles  and  of  the  great 
body  of  primitive  Christians,  had  all  the  training  and 
tastes  of  a  scholar.  He  was  endowed  with  the  high- 
est intellectual  gifts,  and  his  conversion  proved  the 
turning  point  in  the  history  of  Christianity.'' — 
Behrends. 

Bauer,  at  one  time  the  leading  pantheistic,  ration- 
alistic critic  of  Germany,  confessed  just  before  his 
death  in  1860,  that  "  No  psychological  or  dialectical 
analysis  can  explore  the  inner  mystery  of  the  act  in 
which  God  revealed  his  Son  in  Paul,"  and  that,  *'  in 
the  sudden  transformation  of  Paul  from  the  most 
violent  adversary  of  Christianity  into  its  most  deter- 
mined herald,"  he  could  see  *' nothing  short  of  a 
miracle."  Mr.  Behrends  adds,  *'The  confession  is 
fatal  to  the  theory  of  the  great  critic.  The  conver- 
sion of  Paul  is  an  inexplicable  event  on  any  theory 
that  denies  the  supernatural  in  Christianity,  and  that 
discredits  the  historical  credibility  of  the  Gospels." 

*'Next  to  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  and  the 
descent  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  Gospel  history  has  no 
testimony  which  equals  that  of  Saul  of  Tarsus.  It 
has  been  felt  in  all  ages ;  and  many  a  reflective  mind, 
hitherto  unmoved,  has  yielded  to  the  power  of  this 
page  of  the  Gospel." — Monod. 

10-12.  "The  course  of  the  conversion,  guided  by 
Christ  directly  revealing  himself,  is  entirely  in 
accordance  with  its  commencement  (3-9).     *  But  we 


.     NOTES   AND   COMMENTS  349 

know  not  the  law  according  to  which  communications 
of  a  higher  spiritual  world  to  men  living  in  the  world 
of  sense  take  place,  so  as  to  be  able  to  determine 
anything  concerning  them.'" — Meyer. 

31.  "Then  had  the  churches  rest  throughout  all 
Judaea,  and  Galilee,  and  Samaria."  The  first  storm 
of  persecution  had  passed  by,  and  out  of  it  there 
came  missions  to  these  regions,  and  churches  in  all 
of  them.  Not  the  least  of  its  fruits  was  the  conver- 
sion of  Saul.  In  the  calmness  that  followed  the 
wrath  of  man  was  revealed  in  the  light  of  the  praise 
of  God. 

32-43.  The  previous  parts  of  this  chapter  are 
devoted  to  an  account  of  the  conversion  of  Saul; 
these  last  verses  of  it,  to  a  missionary  journey  of 
Peter  through  the  towns  and  cities  of  Sharon.  In 
this  portion  of  Acts  Peter  and  Saul  are  the  leading 
characters.  It  would  seem  that  after  the  conversion 
of  Cornelius  (Ch.  x.)  the  author  hastens  to  be 
done  with  Peter  that  he  may  bestow  all  his  attention 
on  Paul.  Even  this  missionary  journey  is  dispatched 
with  great  haste.  We  would  gladly  know  more 
about  it. 

In  this  chapter  Saul  and  Peter  are  first  brought 
face  to  face,  as  may  be  seen  by  bringing  Gal.  i.  18 
into  proper  reference  to  verses  26  and  27.  "  Kindred 
in  spirit,  though  differing  much  in  social  culture  and 
mental  training,  the  high-born,  philosophic  pupil  of 
Gamaliel,  and  the  humble,  illiterate  boatman  of  Gal- 
ilee, formed,  even  during  the  brief  intercourse  of  two 


350  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

weeks,  an  ardent,  life-long  friendship.  Little  did 
either  of  them  at  the  time  imagine  the  grandeur  of 
the  work  in  which  they  were  engaged,  or  the  great 
things  they  both  were  to  do  and  to  suffer  for  the  sake 
of  Him  they  sought  to  serve  and  honor.  Still  less 
did  they  suppose  that  their  humble  names  would  be 
inscribed  in  the  heraldry  of  deathless  fame,  while  the 
great  men  of  their  day,  princes,  philosophers,  and 
priests,  would  be  remembered  chiefly  because  of 
them  and  their  works.  Scarcely  had  the  names  of 
Caligula,  and  Gamaliel,  and  Annas  been  known 
to-day  but  for  their  connection  with  these  two  hum- 
ble great  men  and  their  mission." 


CHAPTER  X. 

See  Essay  V. 

10-16.    Schaff  has  spoken  very  suggestively,  though 
perhaps  too  minutely,  upon  this  vision  as  follows : 

*'The  symbolical  import  of  this  vision  we  can 
easily  conjecture.  The  vessel  denotes  the  creation, 
especially  mankind;  the  letting  down  of  it  from 
heaven,  the  descent  of  all  creatures  from  the  same 
divine  origin;  the  four  corners  are  the  four  quarters* 
of  the  globe;  the  clean  and  unclean  beasts  represent 
Jews  and  Gentiles,  and  the  command  to  eat  contains 
the  divine  declaration  that  the  new  creation  in  Christ 
has  henceforth  annulled  the  Mosaic  laws  respecting 
food  (Lev.  X.  10),  as  well  as  the  distinction  between 
clean  and  unclean  nations;  and  that  even  the  hea- 


NOTES   AND   COMMENTS  351 

then,  therefore,  were  to  be  received  into  the  Chris- 
tian church  without  the  intervention  of  Judaism,  as 
the  cloth  with  all  the  animals  was  taken  up  again 
into  heaven." 

"The  object  aimed  at  in  the  whole  vision  was  the 
symbolical  divine  announcement  that  the  hitherto 
subsisting  distinction  between  clean  and  unclean 
men,  that  hedge  between  Jews  and  Gentiles,  was  to 
cease  in  Christianity  as  being  destined  for  all  men 
without  distinction  of  nation." — Meyer. 

30-32.  "The  communication  on  the  part  of  the 
angel  (4-7)  is  understood  as  a  divine  answer  to  the 
constant  prayer  of  Cornelius  (2)." — Meyer, 

34,  35.  "It  is  well  known  that  the  introductory 
words  in  the  discourse  of  Peter  have  often  been  so 
interpreted  as  to  teach  that  all  religions  are  of  equal 
value;  that  faith,  as  contradistinguished  from  mo- 
rality, is  not  indispensable ;  and  that,  with  reference 
to  the  salvation  of  the  soul,  all  that  is  specifically 
Christian  is  of  no  importance.  But  the  attempt  to 
find  a  palliation  of  indifference  in  the  subject  of 
religion  in  this  passage  betrays,  as  even  DeWette 
judges,  very  great  exegetical  frivolity.  Both  the 
words  themselves,  and  also  the  whole  connection  of 
the  discourse,  as  well  as  of  the  narrative  of  which 
they  form  a  part,  decidedly  pronounce  against  any 
such  interpretation." — Lechler,  as  quoted  by  the 
American  Editor  of  Meyer's  Commentary  on  Acts. 

47,  48.  "Can  any  one  then  withhold  the  water,  in 
order  that  these  be  not  baptized?     The  water  in  this 


352  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

animated  language  is  conceived  as  the  element  offer- 
ing itself  for  the  baptism.  So  urgent  now  appeared 
the  necessity  for  completing  on  the  human  side  the 
divine  work  that  had  miraculously  emerged."  — 
Meyer. 

"Though  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  has  been  made  so 
apparent,  yet  Peter  does  not  omit  the  outward  sign 
which  Christ  had  ordained  (Matt,  xxviii.  19)  for  the 
admission  of  members  into  his  church." — Cambridge 
Bible  for  Schools  and  Colleges. 

"Who  have  received  the  Holy  Spirit  as  well  as 
we."  Chrysostom  calls  this  event  the  great  apology 
that  God  had  arranged  beforehand  for  Peter. 

"The  communication  of  the  Spirit,  and  conse- 
quently regeneration,  in  this  case  before  baptism, 
is  striking  and  without  parallel  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment. In  all  other  cases  the  gift  of  the  Spirit 
accompanied  or  followed  baptism  and  the  laying  on 
of  hands.  Man  is  bound  by  the  ordinances  of  God, 
but  not  God  himself;  he  can  anticipate  them  with  his 
spiritual  gifts.  This  exception  to  the  general  rule 
was  undoubtedly  ordered,  though  not  for  the  benefit 
of  Peter  himself,  yet  for  that  of  his  Jewish  com- 
panions ;  and  was  intended  to  give  them — and  through 
them  the  whole  Jewish  Christian  party  in  Jerusa- 
lem, who  could  conceive  of  no  baptism  with  the 
Spirit  without  the  baptism  with  water, — incontesta- 
ble proof  of  the  participation  of  the  Gentiles  in 
the  kingdom  of  Christ,  and  to  free  them  from  their 
narrow,  legalistic  views.     The  apostle,  however,  even 


NOTES    AND    COMMENTS  353 

in  this  case,  bore  the  strongest  testimony  to  the 
importance  of  baptism  with  water,  by  causing  this 
sacrament  still  to  be  administered  as  an  objective 
divine   seal    and   pledge   of    the    gifts   of    grace." — 

Schaff. 

CHAPTER  XL 

See  Essays  V.  and  VI. 

1-18.  These  verses  are  a  continuation  of  the  mat- 
ter treated  in  chapter  x.  The  chaptering  is  unfor- 
tunate. Peter  is  called  to  account  by  those  in  Jeru- 
lem  "  who  Avere  of  the  circumcision  "  for  eating  with 
Gentiles  (verse  3).  These  Judaizers  were  zealous 
not  alone  for  the  law  of  Moses,  but  for  traditions 
that  had  been  magnified  into  laws.  In  the  Penta- 
teuch there  is  no  express  prohibition  of  such  fellow- 
ship as  Peter  had  indulged  in  with  the  Gentile 
Cornelius.  But  Maimonides  recalls  a  traditional  law 
that  runs  as  follows:  "It  is  forbidden  to  a  Jew  to 
be  alone  with  heathens,  because  they  are  suspected 
of  lightly  shedding  blood,  nor  must  he  associate  with 
them  on  the  road." 

The  following  is  an  interesting  example  of  the 
sort  of  ceremonial  uncleanness  that  might  spring 
from  association  with  Gentiles. 

*'It  happened  that  Shimeon  the  son  of  Kimkhith 
(who  was  high  priest)  went  out  to  speak  with  the 
king  of  the  Arabians,  and  there  came  a  fleck  of 
spittle  from  the  king's  mouth  upon  the  priest's  gar- 


354  STUDIES    IN   ACTS 

ment,  and  so  he  was  unclean;  and  his  brother  Judah 
went  in  and  served  instead  of  him  in  the  high 
priest's  office.  That  day  their  mother  saw  two  of 
her  sons  higli  priests." 

20.  "Spake  unto  the  Grecians."  So  in  the 
Authorized  Version.  In  the  Revised,  "Greeks." 
"The  New  Testament  uses  Hellenist ce — Grecians,  to 
mean  those  Jews  who  had  been  born  abroad  and 
spoke  the  Greek  language,  or  else  for  proselytes,  but 
Hellenes — Greeks,  when  the  heathen  popuhition  was 
spoken  of.  Now  it  is  clear  that  it  would  have  been 
no  matter  of  remark  had  these  men  preached  to 
Greek  Jews,  for  of  them  there  was  a  large  number  in 
the  church  in  Jerusalem,  as  we  see  from  the  events 
narrated  in  chapter  vi.  1,  and  most  probably  these 
Grecian  and  Cyprian  teachers  were  Greek  Jews;  but 
what  calls  for  special  mention  by  St.  Luke  is  that 
they,  moved  perhaps  by  some  spiritual  impulse,  ad- 
dressed their  preaching  in  Antioch  to  the  Gentiles  as 
well  as  the  Jews." — Cambridge  Bible  for  Schools 
and   Colleges.     With  this  Meyer  and  Hackett  agree. 

"Christianity  touched  the  mind  and  heart  of  the 
centurion.  Let  him  represent  Roman  strength, 
sternness,  lawj  force,  dignity.  Christianity  touched 
the  Greek  mind.  Let  that  stand  for  refinement,  ele- 
gance, delicacy,  philosophy,  for  the  completing  line 
of  human  thought  and  service.  There  you  have  the 
whole  circle.  Christianity  becomes  Roman  to  the 
Roman,  Grecian  to  the  Grecian — a  great  rock  to  a 
rocky  man,  a  rainbow  to  the  dreaming  genius,  a  sum- 


NOTES   AND   COMMENTS  855 

mer  light  to  the  poet's  fancy.  Christianity  speaks  to 
every  man  in  the  tongue  wherein  he  was  born.  Chris- 
tianity says.  You  cannot  learn  my  language,  but  I  can 
speak  yours.  Therefore,  with  the  infinite  stoop  of 
divine  and  tender  grace  it  comes  down  to  the  lowli- 
est and  obscurest  of  men  and  utters  its  gracious 
Gospel.  No  other  religion  does  this.  Every  other 
religion  says.  You  must  come  to  me ;  I  will  not  take 
one  step  toward  you.  This  religion,  symbolized  by 
the  blessed  cross,  comes  out  toward  every  man  to  seek 
and  to  save.  In  such  circumstances  such  beneficence 
is  argument." — Joseph  Parher. 

26.  "By  Christians  I  understand  Christ's  follow- 
ers, Christ  lovers,  Christ  worshipers,  Christ  ones.  It 
is  a  thousand  pities,  in  one  aggravation  of  distress, 
that  such  a  name  should  have  been  debased,  com- 
mercialized, and  made  the  password  to  unworthy 
confidence  and  honor.  Were  we  what  we  ought  to 
be  in  integrity,  in  simplicity,  in  equity  of  soul,  there 
should  be  no  nobler  designation  known  amongst  men, 
and  no  other  should  be  needed.  Eoman  Catholics, 
Protestants,  Episcopalians,  Congregationalists,  Pres- 
byterians— what  are  they,  and  how  have  they  come  to 
have  any  existence  at  all,  and  especially  any  honor  as 
names?  Did  Christ  ever  see  them?  The  one  name 
that  we  ought  to  have  is  Christian,  meaning  by  that 
the  man  who  takes  Jesus  Christ  as  his  Lord,  Savior, 
Priest,  Pattern,  Inspiration.  Could  we  restore  that 
definition  of  the  now  perverted  term,  no  name  known 
under  heaven  amongst  men  could  be  such  a  warranty 


356  STUDIES    IN   ACTS 

of  conduct  and  such  a  seal  of  dignity." — Joseph 
Parker. 

Farrar  says  of  the  name  Christian:  "It  was  be- 
stowed as  a  stigma,  and  accepted  as  a  distinction. 
They  who  afterwards  gloried  in  the  contemptuous 
reproaches  that  branded  them  sarmenticii  and  sera- 
axii,  from  the  fagots  to  which  they  were  tied  and  the 
stakes  to  which  they  were  bound,  w^ould  not  be  likely 
to  blush  at  a  name  which  was  indeed  their  robe  of 
victory,  their  triumphal  chariot.  They  gloried  in- it 
all  the  more  because  even  the  ignorant  mispronuncia- 
tions of  it  were  a  happy  nomen  and  omen.  If  the 
Greeks  and  Eomans  spoke  correctly  of  (Jhristus,  they 
gave  unwilling  testimony  to  the  universal  king;  if 
they  ignorantly  said  Chrestus,  they  bore  witness  to  the 
sinless  One.  If  they  said  Chrisfiani,,  they  showed 
that  the  new  faith  centered  not  in  a  dogma,  but  in  a 
person;  if  they  said  Chrestiani,  they  used  a  word 
which  spoke  of  sweetness  and  kindness.  And  beyond 
all  this,  to  the  Christians  themselves  the  name  was  all 
the  dearer  because  it  constantly  reminded  them  that 
they,  too,  were  God's  anointed  ones — a  holy  genera- 
tion, a  royal  priesthood;  that  they  had  an  unction 
from  the  Holy  One  which  brought  all  truth  to  their 
remembrance." 

27.  "In  these  days  there  came  prophets  from 
Jerusalem  unto  Antioch." 

"  Inspired  teachers,  who  delivered  their  discourses, 
not  indeed  in  the  ecstatic  state,  yet  in  exalted  lan- 
guage, on  the  basis  of  a  revelation  received.     Their 


NOTES    AND    COMMENTS  357 

working  was  entirely  analogous  to  that  of  the  Old 
Testament  prophets.  Revelation,  incitement,  and 
inspiration  on  the  part  of  God  gave  them  their  quali- 
fication; the  unveiling  of  what  was  hidden  in  respect 
of  the  divine  counsel  for  the  exercise  of  a  psycho- 
logical and  moral  influence  on  given  circumstances, 
but  always  in  reference  to  Christ  and  his  work,  was 
the  tenor  of  what  these  interpreters  of  God  spoke. 
The  prediction  of  what  was  future  was,  as  with  the 
old,  so  also  with  the  new  prophets,  no  permanent 
characteristic  feature.  But  naturally  and  necessarily 
the  divinely- illuminated  glance  ranged  very  often  into 
the  future  development  of  the  divine  counsel  and 
kingdom,  and  saw  what  was  to  come." — Meyer, 

28.     *'  Throughout  all  the  world." 

"History  pointed  out  the  limits  within  which  what 
was  seen  and  predicted  without  limitation  found  its 
fulfillment,  inasmuch,  namely,  as  this  famine  which 
set  in  in  the  fourth  year  of  the  reign  of  Claudius 
(A.  D.  44)  extended  only  to  Judaea  and  the  neighbor- 
ing countries,  and  particularly  fell  on  Jerusalem 
itself,  which  was  supported  by  the  Syrian  queen 
Helena  of  Adiabene  with  corn  and  figs." — Meyer. 

This  passage  is  one  of  the  important  notes  of  time 
in  the  book.  Claudius  reigned  from  A.  D.  41  to  54. 
Prof.  Ramsay  bases  much  on  the  time  of  the  famine, 
and  sums  up  his  arguments  as  follows : 

**As  thus  interpreted,  Luke's  chronology  harmon- 
izes admirably  with  Josephus.  Agabus  came  to  Anti- 
och  in  the  winter  of  43-44 ;  and  in  the  early  part  of 


358  STUDIES     IN    ACTS 

44  Herod's  persecution  occurred,  followed  by  his 
death,  probably  in  the  autumn.  In  45  the  harvest 
was  probably  not  good,  and  provisions  grew  scarce  in 
the  country;  then  when  the  harvest  of  46  failed, 
famine  set  in,  and  relief  was  urgently  required,  and 
was  administered  by  Barnabas  and  Saul.  It  is  an 
interesting  coincidence  that  relief  was  given  liberally 
in  Jerusalem  by  Queen  Helena  (mother  of  Izates, 
king  of  Adiabene),  who  bought  corn  in  Egypt  and 
figs  in  Cyprus,  and  brought  them  to  Jerusalem  for 
distribution.  She  came  to  Jerusalem  in  45,  and  her 
visit  lasted  through  the  season  of  famine;  she  had  a 
palace  in  Jerusalem.  The  way  in  which  she  imparted 
relief  to  the  starving  people  illustrates  the  work  that 
Barnabas  and  Saul  had  to  perform." 

30.  It  is  noteworthy  here  that  the  elders  are  rep- 
resented as  having  charge  of  the  charities  of  the 
church. 

CHAPTER  XII. 

See  Essay  VII. 

1.  *'The  accuracy  of  the  sacred  writer,  says 
Paley,  in  the  expressions  which  he  uses  here,  is 
remarkable.  There  was  no  portion  of  time  for  thirty 
years  before,  or  ever  afterwards,  in  which  there  was  a 
king  at  Jerusalem,  a  person  exercising  that  authority 
in  Judaea,  or  to  whom  that  title  could  be  applied, 
except  the  last  three  years  of  Herod's  life,  within 
which  period  the  transaction  herein  recorded  took 
place. " —  Oi'miston. 


NOTES   AND   COMMENTS  359 

4.  "Easter."  This  word  is  an  anachronism.  No 
such  feast  was  known  to  the  Christians.  It  should 
read,  ''Passover." 

5.  "In  the  fifth  verse  there  is  a  pitched  battle. 
Eead  it:— Peter  therefore  was  kept  in  prison;  there 
is  one  side  of  the  fight;  after  the  colon— but  prayer 
was  made  without  .ceasing  of  the  church  unto  God 
for  him.  Now  for  the  shock  of  arms!  Who- wins? 
It  is  the  battle  of  history.  It  is  a  field  on  which  the 
universe  gazes  with  conflicting  feeling.  Prayer 
always  wins." — Joseph  Parher, 

"If  they  had  been  taught  the  modern  doctrine  that 
Christians  may  rightly  resist  with  violence  the 
assaults  of  tyrannical  rulers,  and,  whatever  the  weak- 
ness on  their  own  part,  may  confidently  appeal  to  the 
God  of  battles  in  vindication  of  their  rights,  their 
feelings  and  their  conduct  under  these  circumstances 
must  have  been  far  different  from  what  they  were. 
If  ever  there  was  an  occasion  on  which  the  boasted 
first  law  of  nature,  the  right  of  self-defense,  would 
justify  violent  resistance  to  oppression,  it  existed 
here.  But  instead  of  the  passion  and  turmoil  of 
armed  preparation,  we  hear  from  the  midnight 
assemblies  of  the  disciples  the  voice  of  fervent 
prayer.  Where  prayer  is,  acceptable  prayer,  there  is 
no  passion,  no  thirst  for  revenge,  or  purpose  of 
violence.  These  men  were  disciples  of  the  Prince  of 
Peace."— Pro/.  J.  W.  McGarvey. 

17.     "And   he   departed,    and   went    into    another 


360  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

place."  *'How  often  did  Paul  and  Jesus  himself 
withdraw  ....  into  concealment!  " — Meyer. 
"Catholic  writers  and  some  others  hold  that  Peter 
proceeded  to  Rome  at  this  time,  and  labored  for  the 
Jews  there  as  the  apostle  of  the  circumcision  (Gral. 
ii.  7;  I.  Pet.  i.  1).  If  this  be  true,  he  must  have 
then  been  the  founder  of  the  church  in  that  city,  or, 
at  all  events,  have  established  a  relation  to  it,  per- 
sonal and  official,  stronger  than  that  of  any  other 
teacher.  It  is  entirely  adverse  to  this  view  that  Paul 
makes  no  allusion  to  Peter  in  his  Epistle  to  the 
Romans,  but  writes  with  the  tone  of  authority  which 
his  avowed  policy,  his  spirit  of  independence 
(II.  Cor.  X.  16),  would  not  have  suffered  him  to 
employ  had  it  belonged  more  properly  to  some  other 
apostle  to  intrust  and  guide  the  Roman  church.  The 
best  opinion  from  traditionary  sources  is  that  Peter 
arrived  at  Rome  just  before  the  outbreak  of  Nero's 
persecution,  where  he  soon  perished  as  a  martyr." — 
Hackett. 

24.  ''But  the  word  of  God  grew  and  multiplied." 
*'A  contrast — full  of  significance  in  its  simplicity — 

to  the  tragical  end  of  the  persecutor." — Meyer, 

One  of  the  many  indications  in  the  book  of  the 
rapid  growth  of  the  church  (ch.  vi.  7;  viii.  25; 
ix.  31;  xix.  20). 

25.  "  When  they  had  fulfilled  their  ministry."  A 
ministry  of  charity;  ministration  rather,  for  the 
word  "  ministry  "  has  been  narrowed.  (See  xi.  29-30.) 
The   original   word    for   "ministry"    here,    and    for 


NOTES   AND   COMMENTS  361 

"relief"  in  xi.  29,  and  for  "ministration"  in  vi.  1,  is 
the  same.  It  is  a  form  of  the  Greek  word  which  we 
have  anglicized  as  "deacon."  Its  best  translation  is 
"ministration."  It  is  noteworthy  that  the  Apostle 
Paul  here  performed  distinctively  the  office  of  a 
deacon.  (See  quotation  from  Ruskin,  ch.  vi.  1.)  It 
must  have  been  an  arduous  work  to  purchase  and 
transport  goods  for  a  famine  stricken  people,  and  it 
was  no  light  task  to  distribute  them  properly  among 
the  thousands  of  Jewish  Christians  in  Jerusalem. 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

See  Essay  YIII. 

On  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  see  Essay  XHI. 

"The  record  of  the  first  offer  of  the  Gospel  to  the 
(Gentile)  world  begins  after  the  return  of  Saul  and 
Barnabas  from  their  visit  of  benevolence  to  Jerusa- 
lem. They  bring  back  with  them  John  Mark.  These 
three  set  out  to  bear  the  light  to  the  heathen. 

"  The  church  is  at  length  prepared,  after  more  than 
sixteen  years,  to  begin  formally  and  deliberately  its 
work  among  the  heathen.  The  Sanhedrin  seems  to 
have  lost  its  power  to  hinder.  The  Jewish  state  will 
never  again  oppose.  But  more  than  all  the  Jewish 
caste  has  been  broken,  and  its  prejudice  driven  to  the 
rear  so  that  it  will  not  soon  stand  in  the  way  again. 
The  new  center  of  the  Gospel  influence  has  been 
founded  in  Antioch.  The  religious  thought  of  the 
Jews  under  the  power  of  the  Spirit  has  found  a  new. 


STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

a  deeper,  a  broader  channel.  God  is  no  longer  the 
God  of  the  Jews  only.  The  world  has  put  on  a  new 
face,  because  it  has  become  the  field  of  divine  grace. 
This  first  regular  work  among  the  heathen  was  not 
very  wide  in  its  scope.  It  did  not  reach  Rome.  It 
did  not  reach  Corinth,  or  even  Ephesus.  It  extended 
but  a  few  hundred  miles  beyond  Paul's  birthplace  in 
Tarsus.  In  giving  its  history  Luke  shows  how  God 
promoted  it  from  first  to  last,  how  it  was  carried  on 
and  how  it  was  justified  by  the  obstinacy  of  the  Jews 
who  were  encountered  in  this  first  missionary  jour- 
ney."—Pro/.  J.  M.  Siijler. 

1-3.  ''Thus  the  mother  church  of  Gentile  Chris- 
tianity has  become  the  seminary  of  the  mission  to 
the  Gentiles. ' ' — Meyer. 

2.     "As  they  ministered  unto  the  Lord." 

The  original  for  this  word  "ministered"  is  used 
both  in  reference  to  religious  service  and  the  minis- 
tering of  charities,  or  to  service  both  Godward  and 
manward,  indicating  that  the  two  are  very  closely 
related  (Heb.  x.  11;  Rom.  xv.  27).  The  same  is  true 
of  the  noun  (Luke  i.  23;  Phil.  ii.  30). 

7.     "Deputy."     Strictly  proconsul. 

"Under  Augustus  the  Roman  provinces  were 
divided  into  two  classes,  one  class  of  which  (needing 
the  presence  of  troops  for  their  government,  the  pos- 
session of  which  gave  the  emperor  the  control  of 
the  army)  was  called  iinperatorial,  while  the  others 
were  called  senatorial  provinces.  The  former  were 
governed  by  an  officer  called  propraetor,  the  latter  by 


NOTES    AND    COMMENTS  363 

a  proconsul.  We  know  from  Dio  Cassius  that  Cyprus 
was  originally  an  imperatorial  province,  and  there- 
fore under  a  propraetor.  This  also  Strabo  confirms, 
but  says  that  Augustus  made  it  over  to  the  people 
along  with  part  of  Galatia,  and  took  instead  of  these 
Dalmatia  for  one  of  his  provinces.  So  that  the  gov- 
ernment was  at  Paul's  visit  held  by  a  proconsul  for 
the  Eoman  Senate,  as  is  here  recorded.  This  is 
another  instance  of  the  historic  faithfulness  of 
Luke's  record." — Cambridge  Bible  for  Schools  and 
Colleges. 

9.     "Who  is  also  called  Paul." 

Prof.  Ramsay's  interesting  paragraph  on  the  Apos- 
tle Paul's  change  of  name  cannot  be  omitted   here. 

"Nothing  has  hitherto  transpired  to  show  that 
Paul  was  anything  but  a  Hebrew  sprung  from  the 
Hebrews.  In  Cyprus  he  went  through  the  country 
city  by  oity,  synagogue  by  synagogue ;  and  he  was  the 
Jew  in  all.  But  here  he  is  in  different  surroundings; 
he  stands  in  the  hall  of  the  proconsul,  and  he  ansvvers 
the  questions  of  the  Roman  official.  The  interview 
doubtless  began,  as  all  interviews  in  the  country  be- 
tween strangers  still  begin,  with  the  round  of  ques- 
tions; *  What  is  your  name?  (or  who  are  you?) 
Whence  come  you?  What  is  your  business?  '  .  .  . 
To  these  questions  how  would  Saul  answer?  After 
his  years  of  recent  life  as  a  Jew,  filled  with  the 
thought  of  a  religion  that  originated  among  the  Jews, 
and  was  in  his  conception  the  perfected  form  of  Jew- 
ish religion,  did  he  reply:    'My  name  is  Saul,  and  I 


364  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

am  a  Jew  from  Tarsus?'  First  let  us  see  what  he 
himself  says  as  to  his  method  of  addressing  an  audi- 
ence (I.  Cor.  ix.  20f.)»  *  To  the  Jews  I  made  myself  a 
Jew  that  I  might  gain  the  Jews;  to  them  that  are 
under  the  law  as  under  the  law  (though  not  myself 
under  the  law) ;  to  them  that  are  without  the  law  as 
without  law;  I  am  become  all  things  to  all  men;  and 
I  do  all  for  the  Gospel's  sake.'  We  cannot  doubt 
that  the  man  who  wrote  so  to  the  Corinthians  replied 
to  the  questions  of  Sergius  Paulus,  by  designating 
himself  as  a  Roman,  born  at  Tarsus,  and  named  Paul. 
By  a  marvelous  stroke  of  historic  brevity,  the  author 
sets  before  us  the  past  and  the  present  in  the  simple 
words:  Then  Saul,  otherwise  Paul,  fixed  his  eyes  on 
him,  and  said. 

"The  double  character,  the  mixed  personality,  the 
Oriental  teacher  who  turns  out  to  be  a  free-born 
Roman,  would  have  struck  and  arrested  the  attention 
of  any  governor,  any  person  possessed  of  insight  into 
character,  any  one  who  had  even  an  average  share  of 
curiosity.  But  to  a  man  with  the  tastes  of  Sergius 
Paulus,  the  Roman  Jew  must  have  been  doubly  inter- 
esting; and  the  orator  or  the  preacher  knows  how 
much  is  gained  by  arousing  such  an  interest  at  the 
outset." 

12.  "Then  the  deputy  (proconsul)  when  he  saw 
what  was  done  believed." 

"He  was  convinced  by  the  miracle  and  by  the 
words  with  which  it  was  accompanied,  that  the  apos- 
tles were  teachers   of  the   way  of  the   Lord,  after 


>^OTES   AND   COMMENTS  365 

which  he  had  been  seeking  in  vain  from  Elymas.  We 
are  not  told  that  Sergius  was  baptized,  but  we  have 
other  instances  of  like  omission  of  notice  (verse  48), 
yet  as  baptism  was  the  appointed  door  into  Christ's 
church,  such  omission  of  the  mention  thereof  should 
not  be  thought  to  warrant  us  in  believing  that  the 
sacrament  was  neglected  on  any  occasion." — Cam- 
bridge Bible  for  Schools  and  Colleges. 

With  this  Meyer  agrees,  saying  that  "believed" 
*'  obviously  supposes  the  reception  of  baptism." 

14.  *'  But  when  they  departed  from  Perga  they 
came  to  Antioch  in  Pisidia." 

Prof.  Ramsay  connects  this  sudden  departure  from 
Perga  and  visit  to  Antioch  with  Paul's  "  infirmity  in 
the  flesh,"  referred  to  in  Gal.  iv.  13,  14.  He  thinks 
the  "infirmity"  was  malarial  fever  in  a  distressing 
form,  and  that  therefore  Paul  sought  the  moun- 
tainous regions  of  Pisidian  Antioch.  He  also  seeks 
to  show  that  this  disease  was  Paul's  "thorn  in  the 
flesh"  (II.  Cor.  xii.  7).  His  arguments  are  interest- 
ing, and  well  nigh  convincing. 

20.  "Gave  unto  them  judges  about  the  space 
of  four  hundred  and  fifty  years,  until  Samuel  the 
prophet." 

Paul  here  seems  to  follow  the  chronology  of  Jose- 
phus  rather  than  that  in  I.  Kings  vi.  1,  where  the 
period  from  the  Exodus  to  the  building  of  the  temple 
is  given  as  480  years.  This,  subtracting  the  40  years 
in  the  wilderness,  the  25  of  Joshua,  the  40  of 
Saul's  reign,  the  40  of  David's,  and  the  4  of  Solo- 


366  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

mon's  up  to  the  time  of  the  beginning  of  the  work, 
leaves  only  331  as  the  period  of  the  Judges.  Jose- 
phus,  however,  gives  the  time  from  the  exodus  to  the 
building  of  the  temple  as  592  years.  Making  the 
subtractions  above  from  this  we  have  left  in  round 
numbers  the  450  vears  of  the  text.  (See  Meyer  and 
Hackett.) 

17-41.  In  Paul's  sermon  there  appears,  1.  Epit- 
ome of  Israel's  history  from  the  sojourn  in  Egypt  to 
David.  2.  The  genealogy  of  Jesus  as  starting  from 
David.  3.  The  rejection  of  Jesus.  4.  The  resur- 
rection of  Jesus.  5.  Forgiveness  through  Jesus, 
and  therefore  justification  by  him.  6.  A  warning  to 
despisers. 

The  first  part  of  this  sermon  follows  the  plan  of 
Stephen  (VII.);  the  latter  part,  that  of  Peter  on 
Pentecost  (II.).  The  place  assigned  to  forgiveness 
by  Paul  is  the  same  as  that  assigned  to  remission  of 
sins  by  Peter.  In  Paul's  mind  forgiveness  takes  the 
form  of  justification.  Here  is  the  first  intimation  of 
his  teaching  on  that  subject.  Here  also  he  first 
intimates  the  insufficiency  of  the  law  of  Moses,  and  it 
seems  to  have  given  no  offense  to  his  Jewish  audi- 
tors, perhaps  because  these  Jews  were  already  lax 
legalists  by  reason  of  Gentile  associations. 

48.  *'As  many  as  were  ordained  (were  disposed; 
Variorum  Bible)  to  eternal  life  believed." 

*'ln  the  controversies  on  predestination  and  elec- 
tion this  sentence  has  constantly  been  brought  for- 
ward.    But  it  is  manifestly  unfair  to  take  a  sentence 


NOTES    AND    COMMENTS  367 

out  of  its  context,  and  interpret  it  as  if  it  stood 
alone.  In  verse  46  we  are  told  that  the  Jews  had 
judged  themselves  unworthy  of  eternal  life,  and  all 
that  is  meant  by  the  words  in  this  verse  is  the  oppo- 
site of  that  expression.  The  Jews  were  acting  so  as 
to  proclaim  themselves  unworthy;  the  Gentiles  were 
making  manifest  their  desire  to  be  deemed  worthy. 
The  two  sections  were  like  opposing  troops,  ranged 
by  themseh^es,  and  to  some  degree,  though  not  unal- 
terably, looked  upon  as  so  ranged  by  God  on  differ- 
ent sides.  Thus  the  Gentiles  were  ordering  them- 
selves, and  were  ordered,  unto  eternal  life.  The  text 
says  no  word  to  warrant  us  in  thinking  that  none 
could  henceforth  change  sides." — Cambridge  Bible 
for  Schools  and   Colleges. 

49.  "And  the  word  of  the  Lord  was  published 
through  all  the  region." 

*'  Here  we  have  a  fact  of  (Roman)  administration 
and  government  assumed  in  quiet  and  undesigned 
fashion.  Antioch  was  the  center  of  a  Region,  This 
is  the  kind  of  allusion  which  affords  to  the  students 
of  ancient  literature  a  test  of  accuracy,  and  often  a 
presumption  of  date.  I  think  that,  if  we  put  this 
presumption  to  the  test,  we  shall  find,  (1)  That  it  is 
right;  (2)  that  it  adds  a  new  fact;  (3)  that  it 
explains  and  throws  new  light  on  several  passages  in 
ancient  authors  and  inscriptions."  This  note  is  from 
Prof.  Ramsay,  who  goes  more  deeply  into  the  sub- 
ject, and  concludes  as  follows,  referring  to  an  in- 
scription found  and  published  by  Prof.  Sterrett,  of 


368  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

Amherst,  Mass.,  which  speaks  of  a  *'regionary  cen- 
turion: " 

*'Thuswehave  epigraphic  authority  to  prove  that 
Antioch  under  the  Roman  administration  was  the 
center  of  a  Region.  Further,  we  can  determine  the 
extent  and  name  of  that  Region,  remembering  always 
that  in  a  province  like  Galatia,  where  evidence  is 
lamentably  scanty,  we  must  often  be  content  with 
reasonable  probability,  and  rarely  find  such  an  in- 
scription as  Prof.  Sterrett's,  to  put  us  on  a  plane  of 
demonstrated  certainty.  .  .  .  Thus  without  any 
formal  statement,  and  without  any  technical  term, 
but  in  the  course  of  a  bare,  simple  and  brief  account 
of  the  effects  of  Paul's  preaching,  we  find  ourselves 
unexpectedly  (just  as  Paul  and  Barnabas  found  them- 
selves unintentionally)  amid  a  Roman  provincial  dis- 
trict, which  is  moved  from  the  center  to  the  circum- 
ference by  the  new  preaching.  It  is  remarkable  how 
the  expression  of  Luke  embodies  the  very  soul  of 
history." 

50.  "The  honorable  women." 

"The  influence  attributed  to  women  at  Antioch  is 
in  perfect  accord  with  the  manners  of  the  country. 
In  Athens  or  in  an  Ionian  city  it  would  have  been  im- 
possible."— Ramsay. 

51.  "Shook  off  the  dust  of  their  feet."  In  ac- 
cordance with  the  instruction  of  Jesus  (Matt.  x.  14). 
It  is  not  always  necessary  or  possible  that  the  victo- 
ries of  truth  should  be  immediate.     Time  is  required 


NOTES   AND   COMMENTS  369 

for  the  effects  of  preaching.  Paul  and  Barnabas 
withdrew  only  that  they  might  revisit  and  confirm 
(xiv.  21,  22). 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

5,  6.  Observe  that  the  apostles  were  not  stoned  in 
Iconium,  though  they  were  perilously  near  to  it. 
Observe  also  that  in  Lystra  (19,  20)  Paul  was  stoned, 
this  being  the  only  occasion  of  stoning  recorded 
in  his  case.  In  II.  Cor.  xi.  25,  he  says,  "Once  was  I 
stoned."  Paley,  in  his  "  Horae  Pauliuae,"  makes  fine 
use  of  this  agreement  between  Paul  and  Luke,  espe- 
cially as  they  are  so  dangerously  near  to  a  disagree- 
ment. They  are  saved  from  contradiction  by  their 
mutual  accuracy  and  truthfulness. 

8-10.  "Observe  the  earnest  circumstantiality  of 
this  narrative." — Meyer. 

11.  "Lifted  up  their  voices  in  the  speech  of 
Lycaonia." 

"The  more  surprised  and  astonished  the  people 
were,  the  more  natural  it  was  for  them  to  express 
themselves  in  their  native  dialect." — Meyer. 

"The  name  Lycaonia,  or  Wolfland,  indicates  only 
too  faithfully  the  character  of  the  inhabitants.  Few 
if  any  Jews  were  settled  there,  and  we  read  of  no 
synagogue  in  either  of  the  towns  named.  The  region 
is  described  as  wild,  rugged,  mountainous;  an  almost 
Alpine  country."  "Lystra  was  the  home  of  Timo- 
thy, and  has  a  post-apostolic  history,  the  name;:  c  . 

24 


370  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

its  bishops  appearing  in  the  records  of  early  coun- 
cils." 

*'The  gods  are  come  down  to  us  in  the  likeness  of 
men." 

**It  was  a  general  belief,  long  after  the  Homeric 
age,  that  the  gods  visited  the  earth  in  the  form  of 
men.  Such  a  belief  with  regard  to  Jupiter  would  be 
natural  in  such  an  inland,  rural  district  as  Lystra, 
which  seems  to  have  been  under  his  special  protec- 
tion, as  his  image  or  temple  stood  in  front  of  the  city 
gates.  And  as  Mercury  was  the  messenger  and  her- 
ald of  the  gods,  especially  of  Jupiter,  it  was  natural 
that  he  should  be  associated  with  him.  He  was  also 
the  god  of  eloquence;  and  as  Paul  was  the  chief 
speaker,  they  took  him  for  Mercury;  and  the  more 
quiet,  perhaps  the  more  aged,  venerable  and  majestic 
looking  Barnabas,  they  regarded  as  Jupiter."  — 
Ormiston. 

23.  "And  when  they  had  ordained  (chosen; 
elected;  appointed;  Variorum  Bible)  them  elders  in 
every  church     .     .     ." 

'*' There  is  indeed  no  point  on  which  the  most 
learned  have  been  so  much  agreed  as  this,  that  the 
Greek  word  here  simply  denotes  having  selected, 
constituted,  appointed.  Alford  says.  The  word  will 
not  bear  the  sense  of  laying  on  of  hands,  and  adds. 
The  apostles  ordained  the  elders  whom  the  churches 
elected.  Gloag  says  the  word  has  two  meanings,  to 
choose  by  election,  or  simply  to  choose.  Meyer 
adopts  the  first  of  these  meanings;   Gloag  decidedly 


NOTES   AND    COMMENTS  371 

prefers  the  second,  so  does  also  Hackett." — Ormis- 
ton. 

Elders  are  previously  mentioned  in  xi.  30.  (See 
Comment.) 

Gloag  says  the  ministers  of  the  church  were  called 
presbyters  or  elders  with  reference  to  the  Jewish 
element  in  the  church;  and  bishops  or  overseers 
with  reference  to  the  Greek  element. 

CHAPTER  XV. 

See  Essay  X.  This  is  one  of  the  most  important 
chapters  of  the  book. 

1.  "Except  ye  be  circumcised  after  the  manner  of 
Moses  ye  cannot  be  saved."  From  the  standpoint  of 
the  old  law  circumcision  was  not  a  trifle;  but  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  "grace  and  truth"  that  came 
by  Jesus  Christ  it  was  a  trifle,  and  worse  if  men 
trusted  in  it  as  meritorious  to  the  detriment  of  spir- 
itual life.  It  is  amazing  what  trifles  Christians  con- 
tend about!  Early  in  the  eighteenth  century  a 
congregation  in  the  west  of  Scotland  "differed  on 
the  paltry  question  whether  it  was  necessary  for  the 
minister  to  lift  in  his  hand  the  plate  of  bread  before 
its  distribution  in  the  Lord's  Supper,  the  Lifters 
holding  this  to  be  essential,  the  others  regarding  it  as 
a  matter  of  no  moment."  They  became  known  as 
the  Lifters  and  the  Anti-Lifters!— llf'(7/^?^/oc^•  and 
Strong:  Biblical  and  Theological  Cyclojocedia. 

23.     "A  singular  feature   in  James'   resolution   is 


372  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

that  it  includes  one  positive  sin  with  matters  that  are 
in  themselves  indifferent.  He  forbids  a  moral  breach 
along  with  others  that  are  only  ceremonial.  But  the 
solution  is  easy.  The  Greeks  did  not  look  upon 
fornication  with  the  Jews'  abhorrence.  The  sin  was 
so  common  among  the  heathen  that  they  had  lost  all 
conscience  about  it,  and  in  the  prohibition  now  laid 
upon  them  they  would  not  feel  any  theological  diffi- 
culty. "—/S'/(/fe/*. 

36-39.  For  the  dissension  between  Paul  and  Bar- 
nabas, see  Essay  VIII.,  pp.  161  and  162. 

40.  "Paul  chose  Silas."  Silas  was  one  of  the 
chosen  men  of  the  Jerusalem  church  (vv.  25-27).  In 
Paul's  Epistles  and  in  I.  Pet.  v.  12  he  is  called  Silva- 
nus.  In  choosing  such  a  member  and  representative 
of  the  Jerusalem  church  to  accompany  him  in  his 
labors  among  Gentile  churches,  Paul  shows  his  anx- 
iety and  foresight,  for  this  was  among  his  plans 
to  further  the  confidence,  and  thereby  preserve  the 
unity  between  the  Jewish  and  Gentile  Christians. 

41.  *'Andhe  went  through  Syria  and  Cilicia  con- 
firming the   churches." 

According  to  Prof.  Ramsay,  Syria  and  Cilicia  was 
a  Roman  Region  lying  in  Syria  and  not  extending 
into  Asia  Minor.  That  there  were  churches  in  this 
Region  is  proof  of  missionary  work  of  which  we 
have  no  record,  probably  Paul's.  (See  page  367.) 


NOTES    AND    COMMENTS  373 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

See  Essay  XI.  In  this  essay  a  reasonably  full 
treatment  of  the  principal  matters  presented  in  this 
and  the  two  immediately  succeeding  chapters  is 
attempted. 

3.  The  circumcision  of  Timothy  was  not  de- 
manded by  Judaizers,  as  in  the  case  of  Titus  (Gal.  ii. 
3,  4),  but  was  a  concession  on  the  part  of  Paul.  In 
this  concession  no  principle  was  at  stake.  Besides, 
Timothy,  according  to  the  Rabbinical  law,  would  be 
considered  a  Jew  because  his  mother  was  a  Jewess. 
The  decision  of  the  council  in  Jerusalem  (xv.  29) 
gave  no  permission  to  Jewish  Christians  to  neglect 
the  rite  of  circumcision.  This  was  a  point  not 
touched  upon,  and  the  apostle  Paul's  concession  in 
the  case  of  Timothy  would  serve  to  emphasize  his 
demand  for  liberty  in  the  case  of  the  Gentiles. 

12.  "A  colony."  '*  It  should  be  borne  in  mind 
that  a  Roman  colony  was  not  like  what  we  now  call  a 
colony.  The  inhabitants  did  not  settle  as  they 
pleased,  but  were  sent  out  by  authority  from  Rome, 
marching  to  their  destination  like  an  army  with 
banners,  and  they  reproduced,  where  they  settled,  a 
close  resemblance  to  Roman  rule  and  life.  They 
were  planted  on  the  frontiers  of  the  empire  for  pro- 
tection, and  as  a  check  upon  the  provincial  magis- 
trates. The  names  of  those  who  went  were  still 
enrolled  in  the  lists  of  the  tribes  of  Rome.  Latin 
was  their  language,  and  they  used  the  Roman  coinage 


374  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

> 

and  had  their  chief  magistrate  sent  out  or  appointed 
by  the  mother  city.  Thus  they  were  very  closely 
united  with  Rome,  and  were  entirely  free  from  any 
intrusion  on  the  part  of  the  governors  of  the  prov- 
inces."—  Cambridge  Bible  for  Schools  mid   Colleges. 

13.  "  Spake  unto  the  women  which  resorted 
thither. '^ 

"  Considering  the  little  regard  which  the  Jews  had 
for  the  women  to  be  conversed  with  and  taught,  it 
is  noteworthy  how  large  a  part  women  play  both  in 
the  Gospel  history  and  in  the  Acts.  It  was  one 
effect  of  Christianity  to  place  woman  in  her  true 
position." — Cambridge  Bible  for  Schools  and  Col- 
leges. 

15.     "  And  her  household." 

**  Of  a  like  baptizing  of  a  household  see  below  (v. 
33),  and  also  x.  48.  We  are  not  justified  in  conclud- 
ing from  these  passages  that  infants  were  baptized. 
'  Household  '  might  mean  slaves  and  freedwomen." — 
Cambridge  Bible  for  Schools  and  Colleges. 

*'  If  in  the  Jewish  and  Gentile  families  that  were 
converted  to  Christ  there  were  children,  their  bap- 
tism is  to  be  assumed  in  those  cases  when  they  were 
so  far  advanced  that  they  could  and  did  confess  their 
faith  in  Jesus  as  the  Messiah ;  for  this  was  the  uni- 
versal, absolutely  necessary  qualification  for  the  re- 
ception of  baptism." — Meyer. 

*'  Here,"  says  De  Wette,  ''  as  well  as  in  verse  33; 
xviii.  8;  I.  Cor.  i.  16,  some  would  find  a  proof  of  the 
apostolic  baptism  of  children;    but  there  is  nothing 


NOTES    AXD    COMMENTS  375 

here  which  shows   that  any  except  adults  were  bap- 
tized."—  Quoted  by  Hachett. 

With  the  above,  Neander  is  in  full  agreement,  as- 
suring us  that  not  till  so  late  as  the  time  of  Irenseus 
(last  half  of  the  second  century),  does  there  appear 
in  the  church  a  trace  of  infant  baptism. 

The  household  of  Stephanus,  baptized  by  Paul  in 
Corinth  (I.  Cor.  i.  15),  were  all  adults,  as  is  shown 
by  reference  to  I.  Cor.  xvi.  15.  They  "  addicted 
themselves  to  the  ministry  of  the  saints." 

40.     '*  Into  the  house  of  Lydia." 

"Waiting  there  probably  till  they  were  able  to 
travel  further.  But  in  the  midst  of  their  suffering 
they  still  exhort  and  comfort  the  Christians  whom  in 
their  stay  they  had  gathered  into  a  church. 
"How  deep  was  the  mutual  affection  which  existed 
between  St.  Paul  and  these  Philippians,  his  first 
European  converts,  is  manifest  in  every  line  of  the 
epistle  he  wrote  to  them  from  Kome  in  his  first  im- 
prisonment. They  are  his  greatest  joy;  they  have 
given  him  no  cause  for  sorrow;  and  from  first  to  last 
have  ministered  to  his  afflictions,  and  made  manifest 
how  they  prized  their  *  father  in  Christ.'  The 
jubilant  language  of  the  letter  is  marked  by  the  oft- 
repeated    '  Rejoice  in  the  Lord.'" 


376  STUDIES   IX   ACTS 

CHAPTER    XYII. 

See  Essay  XI. 

6.  "The  rulers  of  the  city"  (TroA-iTapxas, — poli- 
tarchs).  "The  title  '  politarchs  '  is  found  nowhere 
in  literature  but  in  this  chapter.  But  an  inscription 
connected  with  this  very  city  of  Thessalonica  has 
been  preserved  on  an  arch  which  spans  a  street  of 
the  modern  city.  It  contains  some  names  which 
occur  as  the  names  of  St.  Paul's  converts,  Sosipater, 
Gains,  Secundus,  but  the  inscription  is  probably  not 
earlier  than  the  time  of  Vespasian.  There  the  title 
of  the  magistrates  is  given  in  this  precise  form;  a 
striking  confirmation  of  the  truthfulness  of  the 
account  before  us." — Cambridge  Bible  for  Schools 
and  Colleges. 

"  The  curious  and  rare  title  '  politarchs  '  was  given 
to  the  supreme  board  of  magistrates  at  Thessalonica, 
as  is  proved  by  an  inscription."— i^amsay. 

12.     "  Honorable  women  which  were  Greeks." 

"  In  Macedonia,  as  in  Asia  Minor,  women  occupied 
a  much  freer  and  more  influential  position  than  in 
Athens;  and  it  is  in  conformity  with  the  known  facts 
that  such  prominence  is  assigned  to  them  in  the  three 
Macedonian  cities." — Ramsay. 

16.     "Paul  waited  for  them  at  Athens." 

Speaking  in  general  of  Paul's  presence  in  Athens 
Prof.  Ramsay  says,  "This  extraordinary  versatility  in 
Paul's  character,  the  unequaled  freedom  and  ease 
with  which  he  moved  in  every  society,  and  addressed 


NOTES    AND    COMMENTS  377 

SO  many  races  in  the  Roman  world,  were  evidently 
appreciated  by  the  man  who  wrote  this  narrative,  for 
the  rest  of  Chapter  xvii.  is  as  different  in  tone  from 
xiii.  as  Athens  is  different  from  Phrygia.  Only  a 
writer  who  was  in  perfect  sympathy  with  his  subject 
could  adapt  his  tone  to  it  so  perfectly  as  Luke  does. 
In  Ephesus  Paul  taught  '  in  the  school  of  Tyran- 
nus;  '  in  the  city  of  Socrates  he  discussed  moral 
questions  in  the  market-place.  How  incongruous  it 
would  seem  if  the  methods  were  transposed!  But 
the  narrative  never  makes  a  false  step  amid  all  the 
many  details,  as  the  scene  changes  from  city  to 
city;  and  that  is  the  conclusive  proof  that  it  is  the 
picture  of  real  life." — Ramsay. 

23.     "To  the  unknown  god." 

Upon  the  authority  of  an  ancient  writer  Meyer 
says,  "  Epimenides  put  an  end  to  a  plague  in  Athens 
by  causing  black  and  white  sheep,  which  he  had  let 
loose  on  the  Areopagus,  to  be  sacrificed  on  spots 
where  they  lay  down  to  the  god  concerned,  yet  not 
known  by  name,  namely,  who  was  the  author  of  the 
plague;  and  that  therefore  one  may  find  at  Athens 
altars  without  the  designation  of  the  god  by  name." 
From  this  instance  he  derives  an  argument  in  favor 
of  the  presence  in  Athens  of  altars  with  the  inscrip- 
tion "Unknown  Grod." 

*'  Reverence  for  the  Unknown  and  Nameless  was 
the  expression  of  the  unsatisfied  groping  of  poly- 
theism after  the  truth;  its  consciousness  of  its  own 
insufficiency;    its    presentiment    both    of    a    higher 


376  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

power  beyond  the  sphere  of  its  gods,  and  of  the 
necessity  of  having  that  power  propitiated.  Thus 
polytheism  itself  left  room  for  a  new  religion,  for  the 
knowledge  and  worship  of  the  unknown  god,  who  is 
also  the  only  true  God.  On  this  longing  after  truth 
Paul  lays  hold;  and,  referring  that  remarkable  phe- 
nomenon to  its  ultimate  principle;  interpreting  the 
religious  want,  which  revealed  itself  therein ;  and  in 
the  presence  of  an  unknown  god,  recognizing  with 
perfect  propriety  the  faint  notion  of  the  unknown 
God,  he  proceeds:  Whom  therefore  ye  ignorantly 
worship,  him  declare  I  unto  you." — 8chaff. 

28.  "In  him  we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our 
being." 

This  is  not  pantheism.  It  is  the  assertion  of  the 
immanence  of  God  as  vv.  24  and  25  are  the  assertion 
of  the  transcendence  of  God.  Moreover  this  "  divine 
descent"  is  predicated  only  of  man,  and  in  man  there 
is  the  recognition  of  evil,  both  of  which  conceptions 
are  averse  to  pantheism.  So  far  from  pantheism  this 
is  a  common  Hebrew  conception  (Psalm  xc.  1),  and 
the  apostle  brings  Greek  poetry  to  its  confirmation 
with  his  Greek  audience,  namely,  '*  We  also  are  his 
offspring;  "  "the  first  half  of  a  hexameter,  verbatim 
from  Aratus." 

34.     "And  a  woman  named  Damaris." 

"One  woman  was  converted  at  Athens;  and  it  is 
not  said  that  she  was  one  of  good  birth,  as  was  stated 
at  Berea  and  Thessalonica  and  Pisidian  Antioch. 
The  difference  is  true  to  life.     It  was  impossible  in 


NOTES    AND    COMMENTS  379 

Athenian  society  for  a  woman  of  respectable  position 
and  family  to  have  any  opportunity  of  hearing  Paul ; 
and  the  name  Damaris  (probably  a  vulgarism  for 
damalis,  heifer)  suggests  a  foreign  woman,  perhaps 
one  of  the  class  of  educated  Hetairai,  who  might  very 
well  be  in  his  audience." — Ramsay. 

Prof.  Ramsay  thinks  that  Paul  was  disappointed 
and  disillusioned  in  Athens;  that  when  he  went  to 
Corinth  he  determined  to  abandon  the  philosophic 
style,  and  "  know  nothing  but  Christ  and  him  cruci- 
fied "  (I.  Cor.  ii.  2);  and  that  nowhere  was  he  so 
hard  on  the  philosophers  and  dialecticians  as  when 
he  defended  the  style  of  his  preaching  in  Corinth. 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

Portions  of  Essay  XI.  will  be  found  to  bear  on  this 
chapter  down  to  verse  22. 

2.  An  interesting  point  of  contact  with  Roman 
history,  and  especially  valuable  from  a  chronological 
standpoint.     See  Preliminary  Essay,  page  18. 

8.     See  Comments  on  Ch.  xvi.  15. 

18.  "Having  shorn  his  head  in  Cenchrea;  for  he 
had  a  vow." 

The  construction  of  the  sentence  is  such  that  it  can 
never  be  known  absolutely  whether  this  refers  to 
Paul  or  Aquila;  it  is  commonly  referred  to  Paul. 

24-28.  The  use  of  these  verses  by  Paley  in  his 
"Horse  Paulinas"  affords  us  another  interesting 
example  of  his  method.     In  I.  Cor.  iii.  6,  Paul  says, 


380  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

"I  have  planted,  ApoUos  watered."  "Therefore 
Paul  was  in  Corinth  before  Apollos,  and  Apollos  was 
there  before  the  writing  of  I.  Corinthians."  With 
these  requirements  the  history  found  in  these  verses 
agrees  precisely,  and  it  is  evidently  undesigned. 
Many  passages  in  the  last  chapters  of  Acts  are  thus 
used  in  the  "Hone  Paulinse  "  with  great  force. 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

1-7.  The  rebaptism  of  these  disciples  of  John  is 
unique  and  interesting.  If  they  were  disciples  of 
Apollos  why  did  he  leave  them  thus  after  he  himself 
was  better  instructed?  Surely  Aquila  and  Priscilla 
could  not  have  known  them  long.  They  must  have 
been  strangers  who  attached  themselves  to  the  Chris- 
tians upon  a  very  slight  knowledge  of  Christ.  At  all 
events,  Paul  completed  an  incomplete  work,  and  in 
this  respect  the  incident  may  be  taken  for  a  prece- 
dent. Some  critics  feel  that  it  is  an  interruption  to 
the  narrative  of  Luke,  and  not  perfectly  in  keeping 
with  his  style.  Prof.  Ramsay  suggests  that  if  we 
knew  more  of  the  history  of  the  church  in  Ephesus, 
we  might  see  more  of  the  significance  and  import- 
ance of  the  episode  in  its  development. 

8,  9.  Here  is  the  usual  synagogue  preaching;  the 
usual  persecution;    the  usual  turning  to  the  Gentiles. 

10.  "So  that  all  who  dwelt  in  Asia  heard  the  word 
of  the  Lord  Jesus." 

"  Asia."     That  is,  Asia  Minor,  according  to  Meyer. 


NOTES    AND    COMMENTS  381 

This  ''great  and  effectual  door,"  explains  the  long 
stay  of  Paul  in  Ephesus.  "  It  was  but  forty  years 
after  this  that  Pliny,  in  his  celebrated  letter  to 
Trajan,  says,  even  in  reference  to  the  more  distant 
Bithynia.  "  '  Many  of  every  age,  of  every  rank,  and 
also  either  sex,  are  brought,  and  will  be  brought  into 
peril.  For  the  contagion  of  this  superstition  has 
not  only  spread  through  the  cities,  but  also  through 
the  villages  and  country  places.'  " — Hachett. 

13-20.  "  In  this  narrative  the  powers  of  Paul  are 
brought  into  competition  with  those  of  Jewish  exor- 
cists and  pagan  dabblers  in  the  black  art,  and  his 
superiority  to  them  is  demonstrated.  Ephesus  was  a 
center  of  such  magical  arts  and  practices,  and  it  was 
therefore  inevitable  that  the  new  teaching  should  be 
brought  in  contact  with  them  and  triumph  over 
them . ' ' — Ramsay. 

These  sons  of  Sceva  are  representatives  of  a  class. 
Many  Asiatic  Jews  had  become  lax  and  degenerate, 
and  even  the  office  of  the  priesthood  did  not  deter 
them  from  such  a  vagabond  life  as  is  here  indicated. 

Of  their  pretended  art  of  healing  we  have  a  de- 
scription in  Josephus,  as  quoted  in  the  Cambridge 
Bible  for  Schools  and  Colleges.  "  God  gave  Solomon 
skill  against  demons  for  the  help  and  cure  of  men. 
And  he  arranged  certain  incantations  whereb}^  dis- 
eases are  assuaged,  and  left  behind  him  certain  forms 
of  exorcism  whereby  they  so  put  to  flight  the  over- 
powered  evil   spirits   that  they   never  return.     And 


382  STUDIES    IN   ACTS 

this  method  of  curing  is  very  prevalent  among  us  to 
the  present  time." 

The  price  of  the  magical  books  that  were  burned 
is  estimated  by  Schaff  at  $8,000. 

To  this  wonderful  triumph  may  have  been  due  in 
part  Paul's  influence  throughout  Asia  Minor. 

"  The  most  sensitive  part  of  civilized  man  is  his 
pocket;  and  it  was  there  that  opposition  to  Christian 
changes,  or  'reforms,'  began.  Those  'reforms' 
threatened  to  extinguish  some  ancient  and  resj)ect- 
able  trades,  and  promised  no  compensation;  and 
thus  all  the  large  chiss  that  lived  off  the  pilgrims  and 
the  temple  service  was  marshaled  against  the  new 
party,  which  threatened  the  livelihood  of  all." — 
Hamsay. 

It  was  .thus  that  the  phenomenal  success  of  Paul's 
work  was  the  source  of  a  bitter  persecution  against 
him,  as  is  shown  in  the  last  half  of  this  chapter. 

21.  Here  Paul  expresses  the  intention  of  visiting 
the  churches  he  had  organized  in  his  previous  prog- 
ress from  Philippi  to  Corinth.  It  was  his  custom  to 
revisit  and  confirm  the  churches  that  sprang  up 
wherever  he  first  passed. 

Here  also  is  his  first  expressed  intention  of  visiting 
Rome.  In  the  greatness  of  his  soul  he  seems  to  have 
taken  the  Roman  empire  for  his  parish,  and  it  was 
fitting  that  he  should  visit  its  capital.  He  planned 
also  to  see  Spain  (Rom.  xv.  24),  the  farthest  western 
limit  of  the  empire. 

23.     Here  follows  what  Prof.  Ramsey   calls  "  the 


NOTES    AND    COMMENTS  383 

most  instructive  picture  of  society  in  an  Asian  city  at 
this  period  that  has  come  down  to  us." 

24.  *'A  certain  man  named  Demetrius,  a  silver- 
smith." 

This  enterprising  business  man  roused  the  non- 
chalant eunuch  priests  of  Diana  to  their  danger,  and 
when  once  roused  they  were  excellent  leaders  of  fa- 
naticism and  mob  violence. 

26.  A  high  tribute  to  the  extended  influence  of 
PauVs  preaching,  and  an  indication  of  his  remorse- 
less antagonism  to  idolatry. 

27.  "That  the  temple  of  the  great  goddess  Diana 
should  be  despised,  and  her  magnificence  destroyed." 

The  temple  of  Diana  in  Ephesus  was  one  of  the 
seven  wonders  of  the  world.  It  was  425  feet  in 
length,  220  in  breadth,  with  127  columns  60  feet  high, 
each  said  to  have  been  the  gift  of  a  king,  and  many 
of  them  adorned  with  rich  ornamentation  in  bas-re- 
lief. It  was  built  of  white  marble,  and  was  the  glory 
of  the  city.  Of  this  "proud  temple,  not  one  stone 
remains  upon  another.  It  is  said  that  some  of  the 
pillars  may  be  seen  in  the  Mosque  of  St.  Sophia  at 
Constantinople." 

In  the  35th  verse,  the  townclerk  says  that  the  city 
of  Ephesus  is  a  worshiper  of  the  great  goddess 
Diana.  This  is  an  index  to  the  general  character  of 
the  people.  Kenan  says  of  the  city:  "  It  might  have 
been  called  the  rendezvous  of  courtesans  and  viveurs. 
It  was  full  to  repletion  of  magicians,  diviners,  mimics, 
flute-players,  eunuchs,  jewelers,  amulet  and  metal  mer- 


384  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

chants,  and  romance  writers.  .  .  .  The  mildness 
of  the  climate  disinclined  one  to  serious  things. 
Dancing  and  singing  remained  the  sole  occupation; 
public  life  degenerated  into  bacchanalian  revels." 

28,  29.  "An  enthusiastic  outcry  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  endangered,  and  yet  so  lucrative!  majesty 
of  the  goddess." — Meyer. 

We  are  told  that  the  vast  ruins  of  this  theater  are 
still  to  be  seen,  and  that  it  was  planned  to  seat  thirty 
thousand  people. 

31.     "Certain  of  the  chief  of  Asia." 

"The  reference  to  Asiarchs  is  very  important,  both 
in  respect  to  the  nature  of  that  office,  on  which  it 
throws  great  light,  .  .  .  and  as  a  fact  of  Pauline 
history.  The  Asiarchs,  or  high  priests  of  Asia,  were 
the  heads  of  the  imperial,  political-religious  organiza- 
tion of  the  province  in  the  worship  of  'Rome  and 
the  emperors,'  and  their  friendly  attitude  is  a  proof 
both  that  the  spirit  of  the  imperial  policy  was  not  yet 
hostile  to  the  new  teaching,  and  that  the  educated 
classes  did  not  share  the  hostility  of  the  superstitious 
vulgar  to  Paul.  Doubtless  some  of  the  Asiarchs  had, 
in  the  ordinary  course  of  dignity,  previously  held 
priesthoods  of  Artemis  or  other  city  deities;  and  it  is 
quite  probable  that  up  to  the  present  time  even  the 
Ephesian  priests  were  not  hostile  to  Paul.  The 
eclectic  religion,  which  was  fashionable  at  the  time, 
regarded  new  forms  of  cult  with  equanimity,  almost 
with  friendliness ;  and  the  growth  of  each  new  super- 


NOTES   AND   COMMENTS  385 

stition  only  added  to  the  influence  of  Artemis  and 
her  priests . ' ' — Ramsay, 

33,  34.  * 'Alexander  was  a  Jewish  Christian;  but 
his  Christian  position  was  either  unknown  to  the 
mob,  or  they  would  listen  to  nothing  at  all  from  one 
belonging  to  the  Jewish  nation  as  the  hereditary 
enemy  of  the  worship  of  the  gods." — Meyer, 

**For  about  two  hours  the  vast  assembly,  like  a 
crowd  of  devotees,  or  howling  dervishes,  shouted 
their  invocation  of  *  Great  Artemis!'  In  this  scene 
we  cannot  mistake  the  tone  of  sarcasm  and  contempt, 
as  Luke  tells  of  this  howling  mob;  they  themselves 
thought  they  were  performing  their  devotions,  as 
they  repeated  the  sacred  name,  but  to  Luke  they 
were  merely  howling,  not  praying." — Ramsay. 

35.  *'And  when  the  townclerk  had  appeased  the 
people." 

This  townclerk  is  "a  most  important  personage, 
and  his  title  is  found  at  times  on  the  coinage,  and  he 
gave  name  in  some  places  to  the  year,  like  the 
Archon  at  Athens.  Through  him  all  public  commu- 
nications were  made  to  the  city,  and  in  his  name 
replies  were  given." — Cambridge  Bible  for  /Schools 
and  Colleges, 

Prof.  Ramsay  considers  the  speech  of  this  "town- 
clerk" *'a  very  skillful  and  important  document  in 
its  bearing  on  the  whole  situation,  and  on  Luke's 
plan." 

In  brief,  the  speech  shows  that  at  this  time  the 
rulers  did  not  consider  Christianity  as  disloyal  to  the 

25 


386  STUDIES    IN   ACTS 

government,  and  it  jDoints  out  the  proper  legal  course 
to  be  taken  in  case  accusations  were  to  be  brought 
against  the  Christians.  "It  is  so  entirely  an  apologia 
for  the  Christians  that  we  might  almost  take  it  as 
an  example  of  the  Thucydidean  type  of  speech, 
put  into  the  mouth  of  one  of  the  actors,  not  as 
being  precisely  his  words,  but  as  embodying  a  states- 
manlike conception  of  the  real  situaition." 

CHAPTER  XX. 

1-5.  Strangely  enough  in  these  five  verses  Luke 
dismisses  Paul's  very  interesting  journey  into  Mace- 
donia and  Greece,  together  with  his  return  to  Asia, 
including  a  list  of  his  traveling  companions.  He 
hastens  on  to  the  relation  of  a  new  chapter  in  the 
life  of  Paul.  This  chapter  begins  with  the  birth 
of  Paul's  purpose  to  see  Rome  (xix.  21) ;  the  journey 
into  Macedonia  and  Greece  ends  with  the  celebration 
of  the  Passover  in  Philippi;  from  that  moment  Paul 
entered  seriously  upon  the  new  enterprise,  and  the 
record  becomes  minutely  descriptive. 

6,  7.  For  Prof.  Ramsay's  very  interesting  chrono- 
logical estimates  based  upon  these  verses,  see  Prelim- 
inary Essay,  page  18. 

*'The  moment  Paul  turns  south  from  Philippi 
Luke  writes  with  the  utmost  detail.  The  days  and 
nights  are  given  all  the  way  from  the  chief  city 
of  Macedonia  to  the  chief  city  of  the  Jews.  It  is  not 
difficult   to   see   how  Paul    and    his    company   were 


NOTES    AND    COMMENTS  387 

engaged  at  almost  every  step.  From  the  close  of  the 
Passover  week  in  Philippi  to  the  day  of  Pentecost  in 
Jerusalem  we  know  where  Paul  is  and  what  he  is 
doing.  What  is  the  meaning  of  this  abundance  of 
particulars?  .  .  .  Luke's  presence  on  this  jour- 
ney was  the  means  by  which  he  gathered  all  these 
items,  but  why  did  he  write  them?  Shall  we  say  that 
he  whose  object  in  every  word  set  down  hitherto  was 
as  clear  as  a  sunbeam,  becomes  now  suddenly  pur- 
poseless in  his  narrative,  and  is  nothing  more  than  a 
news  reporter?  It  will  aid  us  in  discovering  what  the 
history  means  here  if  we  note  the  threads  on  which 
the  multitudinous  facts  are  hung.  First  of  all,  Paul 
is  taking  leave  of  the  churches.  He  does  not  expect 
to  see  them  again.  The  address  to  the  Ephesian 
elders  is  given  as  a  sample  of  these  farewell  visits. 
Again,  this  is  the  place  to  show  the  completeness  and 
especially  the  unity  of  the  churches.  They  all  pos- 
sess the  same  spirit.  That  spirit  is  one  of  solicitude 
for  the  Gospel.  Paul  is  everywhere  warned  against 
the  danger  that  awaits  him  in  Jerusalem.  Again,  in 
the  section  now  before  us  we  find  for  the  first  time 
warm  exhibitions  of  love  for  Paul.  Luke  hitherto 
had  only  shown  how  the  great  missionary  was  hated. 
He  had  not  told  of  the  devotion  of  the  Galatians, 
who  would  have  plucked  out  their  eyes  for  the  apos- 
tle (Gal.  iv.  14,  15),  nor  of  the  Thessaloniaus 
(I.  Thess.  iii.  6),  and  of  the  Philippians  (Phil.  i.  26). 
Now  it  is  plain  that  the  history,  by  lingering  along 
day  by  day  and  depicting  what  is  pleasant,  means  to 


388  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

prepare  us  for  the  painful  events  soon  to  occur  in 
Jerusalem.  The  churches  are  everywhere  with  Paul, 
but  to  carry  out  his  grand  design  he  leaves  them  for 
that  caldron  of  rage  where  the  Lord  was  rejected, 
and  where  he,  too,  must  be." — Stijier. 

'*The  first  day  of  the  week." 

See  Comments  on  Chapter  ii.,  page  307. 

9.  "The  author  vouches  that  Eutychus  was  dead, 
implying  that,  as  a  physician,  he  had  satisfied  himself 
on  that  point." — Ramsay, 

13.  This  twenty-mile  walk  after  an  all-night  serv- 
ice indicates  great  physical  endurance  on  the  part  of 
Paul.  Did  the  apostle  long  for  solitary  communion 
with  nature  and  with  God?  Luke  gives  no  hint  of 
Paul's  reason  for  this  course. 

16.  **For  Paul  determined  to  sail  by  Ephesus." 
"Paul,  having  been  disappointed  in  his  first  inten- 
tion of  spending  Passover  in  Jerusalem,  was  eager  at 
any  rate  to  celebrate  Pentecost  there.  For  the  pur- 
pose which  he  had  at  heart,  the  formation  of  a 
perfect  unity  between  the  Jewish  and  non-Jewish 
sections  of  the  church,  it  was  important  for  him  to 
be  in  Jerusalem  to  show  his  respect  for  one  of  the 
great  feasts." — Batnsay. 

17.  "And  from  Miletus  he  sent  to  Ephesus,  and 
called  for  the  elders  of  the  church." 

"Paul  intimates  clearly  that  this  is  his  farewell 
before  entering  on  his  enterprise  in  the  West :  *  Ye 
shall  see  my  face  no  more.'  With  a  characteristic 
gesture  he  shows  his  hands :   '  These  hands  have  min- 


NOTES    AND    COMMENTS  389 

istered  unto  my  necessities.'  .  .  .  The  clinging 
affection  which  is  expressed  in  the  farewell  scene, 
and  the  'tearing  ourselves  away,'  of  xxi.  1  (Variorum 
rendering),  make  a  very  pathetic  picture."—  i?am- 
say. 

28.     '*The  church  of  God." 

"Many  ancient  authorities  read  the  Lord"  (Mar- 
gin of  the  Revised  Version).  Meyer  decides  in  favor 
of  this  reading. 

36,  37.  Of  this  farewell  meeting  Renan  says: 
"They  all  knelt  and  prayed.  There  was  nought 
heard  but  a  stifled  sob.  Paul's  words,  'Ye  shall  see 
my  face  no  more,'  had  pierced  their  hearts.  In  turn 
the  elders  of  Ephesus  fell  on  the  apostle's  neck  and 
kissed  him." 

"Paul  was  a  man  of  strong  conviction  and  great 
force  of  character,  but  also  possessed  of  exquisite 
tenderness  and  a  wealth  of  affection.  If  he  had 
to  endure  the  strongest  enmities,  he  also  won  for 
himself  the  deepest  and  most  enduring  friendships. 
At  once  so  gigantic  and  so  gentle,  his  personality  was 
a  great  power,  and  seemed  wholly  to  overshadow  his 
companions  and  followers,  though  in  themselves  men 
of  great  excellence  and  worth,  such  as  Timothy, 
Titus,  Silas,  Luke,  and  others/ ^^— Or miston* 


390  STUDIES    IN    ACTS 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

An  intense  interest  attaches  to  this  and  the  follow- 
ing chapters  of  the  book,  both  from  the  standpoint 
of  Paul's  later  history,  and  of  the  attitude  of  the 
Roman  rulers  to  the  Christian  religion.  For  fullness 
of  treatment  on  the  latter  point,  the  reader  must  be 
referred  to  Prof.  Ramsay's  work,  already  many  times 
noted. 

3,.  4.  "Landed  at  Tyre;  .  .  and  having  sought 
out  the  disciples"  (Variorum  rendering).  There  is 
no  account  of  any  missionary  work  in  Tyre.  But  by 
this  time  Paul  and  his  companions  had  learned  to 
expect  Christians  in  every  such  considerable  city  on 
the  Mediterranean,  and  to  search  them  out. 

10,11.  "Agabus."  Undoubtedly  the  same  prophet 
who  is  mentioned  in  chapter  xi.  28. 

16.  "Mnason,  ...  an  old  disciple."  Like 
Barnabas,  he  was  of  Cyprus.  Unlike  Barnabas,  he 
seems  not  to  have  given  over  his  property  to  the 
church,  since  he  had  a  house  in  Jerusalem  large 
enough  to  accommodate  Paul  and  his  companions 
during  the  throng  of  the  Pentecost  season. 

21.  This  verse  has  an  emphatic  bearing  on  the 
Jewish-Gentile  controversy,  and  is  an  example  of  the 
false  reports  intentionally  made  current  about  Paul's 
teaching. 

22-25.  The  course  proposed  by  James  and  the 
elders  of  the  Jerusalem  church  was  not  inconsistent 
with  Paul's  rule  of  expediency  by  which  he  "became 


NOTES   AND   COMMENTS  391 

all  things  to  all  men."  Besides,  he  had  had  a  vow  in 
Corinth,  and  had  shaved  his  head  in  Cenchrea.  That 
these  four  Jewish  Christians  should  have  a  Nazarite 
vow  upon  them  shows  how  tenaciously  many  in  the 
Jerusalem  church  still  clung  to  the  Mosaic  forms  of 
worship.  (See  Num.  vi.)  That  Paul  should  purify 
himself  with  them  and  pay  the  expenses  of  their 
release  would  prove  that  he  was  not  antagonistic 
to  the  ancient  customs.  Perhaps  there  is  no  other 
incident  that  so  fully  illustrates  his  true  position. 
He  had  come  to  look  upon  all  these  things  as  not 
legally  binding  (I.  Cor.  vii.  19),  but  simply  as  expe- 
dient for  such  Jewish  Christians  as  felt  the  need 
of  them,  and  inexpedient  for  all  Gentiles.  (See 
Essay  XIV.) 

27.  No  doubt  the  plan  would  have  succeeded  had 
it  not  been  for  these  "'Jews  which  were  of  Asia." 

33.  From  this  time  forth  to  the  close  of  the 
record  Paul  is  a  distinguished  Roman  prisoner.  His 
imprisonment  was  in  reality  rescue,  and  it  was  the 
providential  means  of  his  reaching  Rome. 

CHAPTER    XXII. 

1.     "Hear  ye  my  defense." 

*'In  this  speech  to  the  multitude  the  apostle  gives  a 
skillfully  arranged  account  of  his  past  experience  and 
conduct  with  the  view  of  allaying  the  fanatical  ex- 
citement of  many  of  the  Jews,  and  of  replying  to 
their  unfounded  accusations  against  him.     He  avows 


392  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

himself  to  be  a  Jew  both  by  birth  and  training; 
refers  to  his  fierce  persecution  of  Christians;  gives 
an  account  of  his  wonderful  and  memorable  conver- 
sion; explains  how  he  was  baptized  and  admitted 
into  the  fellowship  of  the  disciples  by  a  pious  Jew, 
and  refers  to  his  labors  among  the  Gentiles. 
Throughout  the  address  he  depreciates  himself,  exalts 
Christ,  and  makes  conversion  to  him  an  epoch  in  the 
life  of  the  convert.  It  is  interesting  to  note  how  the 
addresses  delivered  by  Paul  on  this  occasion,  and 
when  brought  before  Agrippa  (Ch.  xxvi.),  differ 
from  each  other  and  from  the  narrative  given  by 
Luke  (Ch.  ix.),  and  yet  how  they  harmonize  in  all 
material  points.  The  discrepancies  in  the  several 
statements  present  no  serious  difficulties  to  any  ex- 
cept those  who  seek  to  find  and  multiply  contradic- 
tions in  Scripture."  .  .  .  *'It  is  observable  that 
in  speaking  to  the  Jews  from  the  stairs  of  the  castle 
Paul  not  only  uses  the  Hebrew  dialect  but  gives  a 
Jewish  coloring  to  the  entire  narrative;  while,  when 
addressing  Agrippa  and  his  associates'  in  the  royal 
hall,  in  keeping  with  the  place  and  parties,  he  gives 
the  story  a  strong  Gentile  coloring,  speaking  of  the 
hostility  of  the  Jews,  and  of  the  persecuted  Chris- 
tians as  saints." — Ormiston. 

12.  "Ananias,  a  devout  man  according  to  the 
law." 

"The  apostle  neglects  nothing  in  his  address  which 
can  conciliate  his  audience,  and  so  he  tells  them  that 
the  messenger  whom  God  sent  to   him   was    '  well 


NOTES   AND   COMMENTS  393 

reported  of  b}'  all  the  Jews  that  dwelt  in  Damas- 
cus.' " — Cambridge  Bible  for   Schools  and  Colleges. 

15.  ''Thou  shalt  be  his  witness  unto  all  men  of 
what  thou  hast  seen  and  heard." 

This  was  the  Apostle  Paul's  commission  and  is  to 
be  compared  with  that  given  to  the  other  apostles  by 
the  risen  Savior  (Matt,  xxviii.  19,  20;  Mark  xvi.  15, 
16;  Luke  xxiv.  46-48). 

16.  *'  Be  baptized,  and  wash  away  thy  sins." 
Compare  this  with  Titus  iii.5:     "According  to  his 

mercy  he  saved  us,  by  the  washing  of  regeneration, 
and  renewing  of  the  Holy  Spirit."  (Also  with  Eph. 
v.  25-27.) 

**  Baptism  administered  to  real  penitents  is  both  a 
means  and  a  seal  of  pardon.  Nor  did  God  ordinarily 
in  the  primitive  church  bestow  this  on  any,  unless 
through  this  means." — John  Wesley. 

22.     "They  gave  him  audience  unto  this  word." 

The  very  name  Gentile  was  enough  to  infuriate 
this  people.  Up  to  this  point  Paul  prudently  re- 
frained from  its  use.  Immediately  when  it  fell  from 
his  lips  the  outbreak  began.  The  incident  is  an  indi- 
cation of  the  abysmal  hatred  of  the  Jews,  and  it 
serves  to  enhance  in  our  minds  the  mighty  problem 
that  confronted  Paul. 

27.     "Art  thou  a  Roman?  " 

"With  a  wild  and  cruel  fanaticism  they  shouted, 
'Away  with  him ;  away  with  such  a  fellow  from  the 
earth;  for  it  is  not  fit  that  he  should  live.'  Thus 
began  one  of  the  most  odious  and  despicable  specta- 


394  STUDIES    IX   ACTS 

cles  which  the  world  can  witness,  the  spectacle  of  an 
Oriental  mob,  hideous  with  impotent  rage,  howling, 
cursing,  gnashing  their  teeth,  flinging  about  their 
arms,  waving  and  tossing  their  blue  and  red  robes, 
casting  dust  into  the  air  by  handfuls,  with  all  the 
furious  gesticulations  of  an  uncontrolled  fanaticism." 

Rescued  from  the  mob  by  Lysias,  and  about  to  be 
examined  by  scourging,  Paul  appealed  to  his  rights 
as  a  Roman  citizen.  This  rescue  and  this  appeal  are 
made  prominent  by  Luke.  The  very  words  of  the 
appeal  are  given,  and  the  startled  centurion's 
response,  "Art  thou  a  Roman?"  and  the  scene  has 
in  it  the  thrill  of  tragedy. 

*'As  if  the  fact  were  incredible  the  centurion 
added,  'The  privilege  of  citizenship  cost  me  much.' 
To  this  Paul  with  great  dignity  replied,  '  1  have  been 
a  citizen  from  my  birth.'  By  the  Lex  Portia  Roman 
citizens  were  exempt  from  all  degrading  punishment, 
such  as  that  of  scourging.  The  words  Civus 
JRomanits  sum  acted  like  a  magical  charm  in  dis- 
arming the  violence  of  provincial  magistrates.  .  .  . 
'It  is  a  crime  to  bind  a  Roman  citizen;  a  heinous 
iniquity  to  scourge  him;  what  shall  I  say  to  crucify 
him?' 

* 'According  to  the  Roman  law  it  was  death  for  any 
one  falsely  to  assert  a  claim  to  the  immunities  of 
citizenship,  one  of  which  was  exemption  from  the 
lash . ' ' —  Ormiston. 


NOTES   AND    COMMENTS  395 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 


2.  "With  disgraceful  illegality  Ananias  ordered 
the  officers  of  the  court  to  smite  him  on  the  mouth." 
— Favrar. 

3.  *'God  shall  smite  thee,  thou  whited  wall." 
"Where,"  asks  St.  Jerome,  "is  that   patience  of 

the  Savior,  who,  as  a  lamb  led  to  the  slaughter,  opens 
not  his  mouth;  who  gently  asks  the  smiter,  'If  I 
have  spoken  evil,  bear  witness  to  the  evil;  but  if 
well,  why  smitest  thou  me? '  We  are  not  detracting 
from  the  apostle,  but  declaring  the  glory  of  God, 
who,  suffering  in  the  flesh,  reigns  above  the  wrong 
and  frailty  of  the  flesh." — Jerome.  Quoted  by 
F array'. 

Even  the  greatest  of  Christ's  servants  suffers  by 
comparison  with  the  Master  himself. 

"  We  know  from  Josephus  that  Ananias  did  come 
to  a  violent  end.  St.  Paul  calls  him  *  whited  wall ' 
because  he  bore  the  semblance  of  a  minister  of 
justice,  but  was  not  what  he  seemed.  Cp.  *  whited 
sepulchers '  Matt,  xxiii.  27." — Cambridge  Bible  for 
Schools  and  Colleges. 

5.     "  I  wist  not,  brethren,  that  he  was  high  priest." 

How  should  Paul  not  know  that  he  was  high  priest? 
"Numerous  explanations  have  been  offered.  The 
most  satisfactory,  though  not  free  from  objections,  is 
that  given  by  Bengal,  Neander,  Hackett,  Schaff, 
Howson  and  others,   which  supposes  that  Paul  meant 


396  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

that  he  did  not  recollect  or  consider  that  it  was  the 
high  priest  whom  he  was  addressing.  .  .  .  Farrar 
suggests  that  in  a  crowded  assembly  he  had  not 
noticed  who  the  speaker  was.  Owing  to  his  weak- 
ness of  sight,  all  that  he  saw  before  him  was  a 
blurred  white  figure,  issuing  a  brutal  order,  and  to 
this  person,  who,  in  his  external  whiteness  and  in- 
ward worthlessness,  thus  remmded  him  of  the  plasv 
tered  wall  of  a  sepulcher,  he  had  addressed  his 
indignant  denunciation." 

After  the  first  flash  of  indignant  resentment  was 
over,  Paul  immediately  resumed  his  wonted  style  of 
urbane  and  perfect  gentility. 

The  frankness  and  dignity  of  his  apology  are  admir- 
able, and  politic  also  as  showing  his  familiarity  with 
the  Scriptures  and  his  high  regard  for  them. 

6.     "I  am  a  Pharisee,  the  son  of  a  Pharisee." 

Farrar  thinks  Paul's  course  here  was  not  ingen- 
uous, and  he  sees  in  xxiv.  21,  an  indication  that  Paul 
himself  regretted  it.  Alford,  however,  says:  "  Sure- 
ly no  defense,  of  Paul  for  adopting  this  course  is 
required,  but  all  admiration  is  due  for  his  skill  and 
presence  of  mind." 

9.     *'  And  there  arose  a  great  cry." 

What  fierce  passions,  how  little  self-control,  what 
an  utter  lack  of  the  judicial  mind  in  this  Jewish  San- 
hedrin ! 

11.  *'Beof  good  cheer,  Paul.  As  thou  hast  tes- 
tified of  me  in  Jerusalem,  so  must  thou  bear  witness 
also  at  Rome." 


NOTES    AND    COMMENTS  397 

*'0n  this  passage  Alford  has  the  following  excel- 
lent remarks :  By  these  few  words  the  Lord  assured 
him  of  a  safe  issue  of  his  present  troubles,  of  an 
accomplishment  of  his  intention  of  visiting  Rome,  of 
the  certainty  that  he  should  preach  the  Gospel  and 
bear  testimony  there.  So  that  they  upheld  and  com- 
forted him  in  the  uncertainty  of  his  life  from  the 
Jews,  in  the  uncertainty  of  his  liberation  from  the 
prison  in  Csesarea,  in  the  uncertainty  of  his  surviving 
the  storm  in  the  Mediterranean,  in  the  uncertainty  of 
his  fate  on  arriving  at  Rome.  So  may  one  crumb  of 
divine  grace  and  help  be  multiplied  to  feed  five 
thousand  wants  and  anxieties." — Quoted  hy  Ormiston. 

12.     "  Bound  themselves  by  a  great  curse." 

Perhaps  they  were  piqued  at  the  way  in  which 
Paul  had  escaped  them,  and  became  the  more  mali- 
cious. 

16.  This  is  the  only  reference  to  Paul's  relatives 
to  be  found  in  the  New  Testament. 

23.  That  a  force  of  470  soldiers  should  be  de- 
tailed for  this  march,  indicates  the  apprehension  of 
the  Roman  officials.  That  such  a  force  could  be 
spared  from  Jerusalem  on  a  moment's  notice  injdi- 
cates  the  strength  of  the  army  that  was  kept  there. 

27.     "Having  understood  that  he  was  a  Roman." 

Lysias  did  not  know  that  he  was  a  Roman  till  after 
he  had  rescued  Paul.  Meyer  calls  this  a  lie,  and  sees 
in  it  a  proof  of  the  genuineness  of  the  letter.  That 
Lysias  should  warp  the  truth  in  ^this  ingenious  way 
for  a  purpose,   would  be    quite  natural.     That  an 


398  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

author  should  create  such  a  fiction  with  no  purpose 
in  it  from  his  own  standpoint  would  be  unaccount- 
able.    Luke  recorded  what  happened. 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

1.  "A  certain  orator  named  Tertullus,  who  in- 
formed the  governor  against  Paul." 

"The  Jews,  probably  because  ignorant  of  Roman 
law,  engaged  the  services  of  a  Roman  barrister  of 
eminent  ability,  persuasive  eloquence,  and  probably 
of  great  reputation,  to  make  the  charges  against  the 
apostle.  From  the  outline  given  of  his  speech,  he 
was  evidently  a  practiced  pleader,  and  a  voluble, 
plausible  orator.  Augustine  says,  '  Eloquence  is  the 
gift  of  God,  but  the  eloquence  of  a  bad  man  is  like 
poison  in  a  golden  cup!" — Ormiston, 

"  The  language  of  Tertullus  is  that  of  gross  flat- 
tery. History  ascribes  to  Felix  a  very  different  char- 
acter. Both  Josephus  and  Tacitus  represent  him  as 
one  of  the  most  corrupt  and  oppressive  rulers  ever 
sent  by  the  Romans  into  Judea.  He  deserved  some 
praise  for  the  vigor  with  which  he  suppressed  the 
bands  of  robbers  by  which  the  country  had  been 
infested.  The  compliment  had  that  basis,  but  no 
more. " — Hachett. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  even  this  was  because 
he  preferred  a  monopoly  on  robbery. 

5-9.  **  Having  made  an  orderly  and  formal  indict- 
ment against  the  apostle    of  treason  against  Rome, 


NOTES    AND    COMMENTS  399 

schism  against  Moses,  and  profanity  against  the  gods, 
the  clever  and  crafty  advocate  insinuates  that  the 
Sanhedrin  would  have  judged  Paul  righteously  had 
Lysias  not  interposed,  and  further  gets  the  elders  to 
assent  to  all  that  he  had  said." — Ormiston. 

10-21.  Paul  replies  definitely  to  the  charges.  He 
could  not  have  created  a  sedition  against  the  Roman 
government  in  twelve  days.  So  far  from  schism  they 
had  found  him  purified  in  the  temple  with  gifts  and 
offerings.  As  to  heresy,  he  confesses  that  after  the 
way  which  they  called  a  heresy  he  worshiped  God. 
This  he  explains  at  some  length,  and  pleads  a  con- 
science void  of  offense  toward  God  and  man.  Before 
a  Roman  tribunal  his  peculiar  way  of  worshiping 
Jehovah  would  count  for  nothing.  He  was  claiming 
a  recognized  right. 

17.  "Now  after  many  years  I  came  to  bring  alms 
to  my  nation." 

*'This  allusion  is  very  abrupt.  It  is  the  first  and 
only  intimation  contained  in  the  Acts  that  Paul  had 
been  taking  up  contributions  on  so  extensive  a  plan. 
The  manner  in  which  the  epistles  supply  this  defi- 
ciency, as  Paley  has  shown  (Horse  Paulinae),  fur- 
nishes an  incontestable  proof  of  the  credibility  of 
the  New  Testament  writers." — Hackett. 

26.     "Felix  trembled." 

Tacitus  says  of  Felix:  "In  the  practice  of  all 
kinds  of  lust,  crime  and  cruelty,  he  exercised  the 
power  of  a  king  and  the  temper  of  a  slave." 

Respecting  Felix  and  his  wife    Drusilla,  Hackett 


400  STUDIES  IN  ACTS 

quotes  Josephus  as  follows :  "  Agrippa  gave  his  sis- 
ter Drusilla  in  marriage  to  Azizus,  king  of  the 
Emesenes,  who  had  consented  to  be  circumcised  for 
the  sake  of  the  alliance.  But  this  marriage  of  Dru- 
silla with  Azizus  was  dissolved  in  a  short  time,  after 
this  manner.  When  Felix  was  procurator  of  Judaea 
he  saw  her,  and,  being  captivated  with  her  beauty, 
persuaded  her  to  desert  her  husband,  transgress  the 
laws  of  her  country,  and  marry  himself." 

"The  fate  of  this  woman,"  Hackett  observes, 
**  was  singular.  She  had  a  son  by  Felix,  and  both 
the  mother  and  the  son  were  among  those  who  lost 
their  lives  in  the  eruption  of  Vesuvius  in  A.  D.  79." 

Paul  was  brought  before  the  bar  of  Felix,  but 
Felix  trembled  before  the  bar  of  Paul.  He  trembled, 
but  with  him  as  with  many  another  sinner,  procras- 
tination took  the  place  of  repentance,  and  "  the 
thief  of  time  "  was  found  to  be  also  the  thief  of  the 
soul.  His  groveling  nature  sought  a  bribe;  the  apos- 
tle offered  him  heaven  and  God.  He  little  knew  or 
cared  that 

"  Through  all  ages  and  in  all  human  story 
The  path  of  duty  is  the  way  to  glory." 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

1-5.  This  was  a  critical  time  for  Paul.  The  new 
procurator  would  wish  to  please  the  chief  men  among 
the  Jews.  These  wealthy  and  influential  men  made 
a  plausible  request,  namely,  that  instead  of  subject- 
ing them  to  the  inconvenience  of  going  to  Ciesarea, 


NOTES   AND    COMMENTS  401 

Paul  should  be  brought  back  to  Jerusalem  for  trial. 
"Two  years  of  deferred  hopes  and  obstructed  pur- 
poses and  dreary  imprisonment  had  not  quenched  the 
deadly  antipathy  of  the  Jews  to  the  man  whose  free 
offer  of  the  Gospel  to  the  Gentiles  seemed  to  them 
one  of  the  most  fatal  omens  of  their  impending 
ruin."  Their  request  was  to  have  Paul  once  more 
before  the  Sanhedrin ;  their  plan  w^as  to  assassinate 
him..  But  Festus  was  not  to  be  trifled  with,  and 
falling  back  upon  the  requirements  of  the  Roman 
law,  he  answered  that  Paul  was  kept  in  charge  at 
Caesarea  (Revised  Version).  Once  more  under  the 
laws  of  Rome,  the  assassins  were  thwarted  and  Paul 
was  saved.  Meyer  asks  us  to  notice  the  contrast  be- 
tween Jewish  baseness  and  the  strict  order  of  the 
Roman  government. 

9.  Festus,  knowing  Paul's  rights  as  a  Roman  citi- 
zen, can  do  no  more  than  propose  to  release  him 
from  all  charges  before  the  Roman  law,  and  request 
him  to  go  to  Jerusalem  for  trial  upon  charges  before 
the  Sanhedrin. 

10.  "I  am  standing  before  Caesar's  judgment 
seat."     See  Essay  XII. 

13.  This  was  Herod  Agrippa  II.,  son  of  Herod 
Agrippa  I.,  whose  tragical  death  is  related  in  xii.  20- 
24.  He  was  grandson  of  Aristobulus,  and  great- 
grandson  of  Herod  the  Great.  It  is  well  understood 
that  his  sifter  Bernice  was  living  wnth  him  in  a 
criminal  way.  "  She  was  noted  for  her  beauty  and 
profligacy.     Luke's   accuracy   in   introducing   her   at 


402  STUDIES    IN   ACTS 

this  stage  of  the  history  is  worthy  of  remark.  After 
a  brief  marriage  with  her  first  husband,  she  became 
the  wife  of  Herod,  her  uncle,  king  of  Chalcis,  and  on 
his  death  remained  for  a  time  with  her  brother, 
Agrippa.  Her  third  marriage  with  Polemon,  king  of 
Cilicia,  she  soon  dissolved,  and  returned  to  her 
brother  not  long  before  the  death  of  the  emperor 
Claudius  (A.  D.  54).  She  could  have  been  with 
Agrippa,  therefore,  in  the  time  of  Festus,  as  Luke 
represents  in  our  narrative.  Her  subsequent  connec- 
tion with  Vespasian  and  Titus  made  her  name 
familiar  to  Eoman  writers.  Several  of  tliem,  Taci- 
tus, Suetonius,  and  Juvenal,  either  mention  her  ex- 
pressly or  allude  to  her." — Hackett. 

This  Agrippa  sided  with  the  Romans  in  the  war 
against  Jerusalem.  After  the  fall  of  the  city  he 
retired  to  Rome  with  his  sister  Bernice,  and  there 
died  in  100  A.  D. 

23.     See  Comment  on  xxvi.  1. 

26.     "Unto  my  lord." 

Gloag  says:  **In  the  use  of  this  title  we  have  an 
instance  of  the  extreme  accuracy  of  the  historian  of 
the  Acts." 

"This  title  was  declined  by  the  first  two  emperors, 
Augustus  and  Tiberias.  Caligula  (37-41)  accepted  it, 
but  it  was  not  a  recognized  title  of  any  emperor 
before  Domitian  (81-96).  .  .  .  Antoninus  Pius 
(138-161)  was  the  first  who  put  this  title  on  his  coins. 
Polycarp,  who  was  a  contemporary  of  some  of  the 


NOTES    AND    COMMENTS  403 

apostles,  and  who  suffered  martyrdom  at  an  advanced 
age,  refused  to  utter  it." — Ormiston. 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 

1.  "Then  Paul  stretched  forth  the  hand,  and  an- 
swered for  himself." 

"It  was  not,  as  commonly  represented,  a  new  trial. 
That  would  have  been  on  all  grounds  impossible. 
Agrippa  was  without  judical  functions,  and  the 
authority  of  the  procurator  had  been  cut  short  by  the 
appeal.  It  was  more  in  the  nature  of  a  private,  or 
drawing-room  audience— a  sort  of  show  occasion, 
designed  for  the  amusement  of  these  princely  guests, 
and  the  idle  aristocracy  of  Ceesarea,  both  Jewish  and 
Gentile.  Festus  had  ordered  the  auditorium  to  be 
prepared  for  the  occasion,  and  invited  all  the  chief 
officers  of  the  army  and  the  principal  inhabitants  of 
the  town  (xxv.  23).  The  Herods  were  fond  of  show, 
and  Festus  gratified  their  humor  by  a  grand  pro- 
cessional display. '  '—Farrar. 

6.  Paul  claims  that  Christianity  is  the  true  fruit- 
age of  Judaism. 

8.  A  sudden  and  impassioned  appeal,  and  an  un- 
answerable argument  in  favor  of  the  resurrection. 

10, 11.  An  intimation  of  the  extent  of  Paul's  work 
of  persecution,  and  a  proof  that  he  was  implicated 
in  the  death  of  others  than  Stephen. 

12-19.  Paul's  second  account  of  the  Christophany 
at  the  time  of  his  conversion,  the  first  having  been 


404  STUDIES    IN   ACTS 

given  in  Hebrew  before  the  angry  Jews  in  Jerusalem 
(xxii.  5-11). 

**  There  are  some  differences  between  this  speech 
and  the  one  made  on  the  stairs  of  the  castle  in  Jeru- 
salem. The  contradictions  are  only  apparent  and 
vanish  before  a  little  scrutiny.  Heve  before  Agrippa 
Paul  does  not  hesitate  to  call  the  disciples  whom  he 
had  persecuted,  saints,  holy  persons  (v.  10),  a  term 
which  would  have  been  resented  had  it  been  used  in 
the  former  speech  before  the  mob.  There  he  said 
instead  *  men  and  women'  (xxii.  4).  In  describing 
the  scene  on  the  Damascus  road  some  particulars  not 
given  before  are  mentioned.  The  light  was  '  above 
the  brightness  of  the  sun.'  They  'all'  fell  to  the 
ground.  The  voice  spake  to  him  'in  the  Hebrew 
tongue.'  It  said,  'It  is  hard  for  thee  to  kick  against 
the  pricks.'  These  particulars  would  go  to  show 
before  Agrippa  that  in  that  sublime  moment  Paul 
was  calm  and  self-possessed.  He  noted  everything. 
He  did  not  fall  down  in  a  swoon.  All  fell  before  the 
power  of  the  light.  It  was  not  a  delusion,  not  a 
mere  vision.     It  was  a  sensible  reality." — Stijler. 

Paul  begins  and  ends  his  account  of  the  Chris- 
tophany  with  a  respectful  address  to  the  king  (vv. 
13  and  19). 

20-23.  "Paul  was  now  launched  on  the  full  tide 
of  the  sacred  and  impassioned  oratory  which  was  so 
powerful  an  agent  in  his  mission  work.  He  was 
delivering  to  kings  and  governors  and  chief  captains 


NOTES    AND    COMMENTS  405 

that   testimony   which   was   the   chief   object   of   his 
life." — Farrar. 

24.  "Festus  saw  that  nature  was  not  working  in 
Paul;  grace  he  did  not  see." 

**His  profane  mind  remained  wholly  unaffected  by 
the  holy  inspiration  of  the  strange  speaker,  and  took 
his  utterances  as  the  whims  of  a  mind  perverted  by 
much  study  from  the  equilibrium  of  sound  under- 
standing. ' ' — Meyer, 

25.  Paul  was  rudely  interrupted,  but  his  reply  was 
admirable.  His  speech  was  marred,  but  his  courtesy 
was  perfect. 

28.  "Then  Agrippa  said  unto  Paul,  with  but  little 
persuasion  thou  wouldest  fain  make  me  a  Christian" 
(Revised  Version). 

Herod  must  have  uttered  the  word  ** Christian" 
with  a  good-natured  sneer,  mingled  of  Jewish  preju- 
dice and  Roman  pride. 

"The  king  is  of  course  well-meaning  enough  not  to 
take  amiss  the  burning  words,  but  also  as  a  luxurious 
man  of  the  world,  sufficiently  estranged  from  what  is 
holy  instantly  to  banish  the  transiently  felt  impres- 
sion with  haughtily  contemptuous  mockery."  — 
Meyer, 

"Doubtless  his  polished  remark  on  this  compen- 
dious style  of  making  converts  sounded  very  witty  to 
that  distinguished  company,  and  they  would  with 
difficulty  suppress  their  laughter  at  the  notion  that 
Agrippa,  favorite  of  Claudius,  friend  of  Nero,  King 
of  Chalcis,  Ituria,  Trachonitis,  nominator  of  the  high 


406  STUDIES    IN    ACTS 

priest,  and  supreme  guardian  of  the  temple  treasures, 
should  succumb  to  the  potency  of  this  '  short  method 
with   a  Jew.'     That  Paul   should   make   the   king  a 
Christian  (!)  would   sound   too   ludicrous.     But  the 
laugh   would    be   instantly   suppressed    in    pity    and 
admiration  of   the  poor  but  noble  prisoner,  as  with 
perfect  dignity  he  took  advantage  of  Agrippa's  am- 
biguous expression,  and  said,  with  all  the  fervent  sin- 
cerity of  a  loving  heart,  'I  could  pray  to  God  that 
whether  in  little  or  in  much  not  thou  only,  but  even 
all  who  are  listening  to  me  this  day  might  become 
even  such  as  I  am  except — he  added  as  he  raised  his 
fettered  hand — except  these  bonds.'     They  saw  that 
this  was  indeed  no  common  prisoner;  one  who  could 
argue  as  he  had  argued,  and  speak  as  he  had  spoken; 
one  who  was  so  filled  with  the  exaltation  of  an  inspir- 
ing idea,  so  enriched  with  the  happiness  of   a  firm 
faith  and  a  peaceful  conscience,  that  he  could  tell 
them  how  he  prayed  that  they  all — all  those  princely 
and  distinguished  people — could  be  even  such  as  he — 
and  who  yet  in  the  spirit  of  entire  forgiveness  desired 
that  the  sharing  of  his  faith  might  not  involve  the 
sharing   of    his   sorrows   and    misfortunes — must    be 
such   a   one   as   they   never  yet   had  seen  or  known 
either  in   the   worlds   of  Jewry   or  heathendom." — 
Farrar. 

Paul  does  not  resent  the  name  Christian;  he 
accepts  and  defends  it.  Herod's  use  of  it  shows  that 
it  had  traveled  far  beyond  the  city  of  its  origin. 


NOTES    AND    COMMENTS  407 

' '  No  more  he  feels  upon  his  high-raised  arm 
The  ponderous  chain,  than  does  the  playful  child 
The  bracelet  formed  of  many  a  flowery  link ; 
Heedless  of  self,  forgetful  that  his  life 
Is  now  to  be  defended  by  his  words, 
He  only  thinks  of  doing  good  to  them 
That  seek  his  life."— Graft,am. 


CHAPTEK    XXVII. 

1.  "A  convoy  of  prisoners  was  starting  for  Rome 
under  charge  of  a  centurion  of  the  Augustan  cohort, 
and  a  detachment  of  soldiers,  and  Paul  was  sent 
along  with  it.  He,  of  course,  occupied  a  very  differ- 
ent position  from  the  other  prisoners.  He  was  a 
man  of  distinction,  a  Roman  citizen  who  had  ap- 
pealed for  trial  to  the  supreme  court  of  Rome.  The 
others  had  been  in  all  probability  condemned  to 
death,  and  were  going  to  supply  the  perpetual  de- 
mand which  Rome  made  on  the  provinces  for  human 
victims  to  amuse  the  populace  by  their  death  in  the 
arena. 

Luke  uses  the  first  person  throughout  the  narra- 
tive, and  he  was  therefore  in  Paul's  company.  But 
how  was  this  permitted?  It  is  hardly  possible  to  sup- 
pose that  the  prisoner's  friends  were  allowed  to 
accompany  him.  Pliny  mentions  a  case  in  point. 
Psetus  was  brought  a  prisoner  from  lUiricum  to 
Rome,  and  his  wife  Arria  vainly  begged  to  accompany 
him;  several  slaves  were  permitted  to  go  with  him  as 
waiter's,  valets,  etc.,  and  Arria  offered  herself  alone 
to    perform   all    their   duties;    but    her   prayer   was 


408  STUDIES    IN   ACTS 

refused.  The  analog}-  shows  how  Luke  and  Aris- 
tarchus  accompanied  Paul.  They  must  have  gone  as 
his  slaves,  not  merely  performing  the  duties  of  slaves 
(as  Arria  o:ffered  ,  to  do),  but  actually  passing  as 
slaves.  In  this  way  not  merely  had  Paul  faithful 
friends  always  beside  him ;  but  his  importance  in  the 
eyes  of  the  centurion  was  enhanced,  and  that  was  of 
great  importance.  The  narrative  clearly  implies  that 
Paul  enjoyed  much  respect  during  this  voyage,  such 
as  a  penniless  traveler  without  a  servant  to  attend 
him  would  never  receive  either  in  the  first  century  or 
the  nineteenth." — Ramsay, 

2.  Aristarchus.  See  xix.  29;  xx.  4;  Col.  iv.  10, 
and  Philem.  24.  How  gladly  would  we  know  more 
of  this  man  who  was  such  a  faij:hful  companion  of 
Paul  during  the  last  chapters  of  his  history!  The 
term  '*  fellow-prisoner"  in  Col.  iv.  10  may  be  used  by 
Paul  as  an  emphatic  and  tender  compliment  to  his 
constant  friendship. 

For  a  paragraph  on  this  interesting  voyage  the 
reader  must  be  referred  to  Essay  XII. ;  for  a  close 
study  of  it,  to  Prof.  Ramsay's  work  already  many 
times  quoted. 

9.  "The  fast."  The  fast  of  the  Day  of  Atone- 
ment. This  fast  fell,  according  to  Prof.  Ramsay,  on 
Oct.  5th,  59.  It  was  observed  by  Paul  and  Aris- 
tarchus and  is  used  by  Luke  as  a  note  of  time,  show- 
ing that  the  season  was  so  far  advanced  as  to  make 
navigation  dangerous.  After  Nov.  11,  all  navigation 
on   the  open  sea  was  discontinued. 


NOTES    AND    COMMENTS  409 

14.  **  But  not  long  after  there  arose  a  tempestuous 
(typhonic)  wind,  called  Euraquilo "  (Revised  Ver- 
sion). 

*' Before  they  got  half  way  across  the  open  bay 
(seventeen  miles  from  shore  to  shore)  there  came  a 
sudden  change,  such  as  is  characteristic  on  that  sea, 
where  'southerly  winds  almost  invariably  shift  to  a 
violent  northerly  wind.'  There  struck  down  from 
the  Cretan  mountains,  which  towered  above  them  to 
the  height  of  over  7,000  feet,  a  sudden  eddying  squall 
from  about  east  north-east.  Every  one  who  has  any 
experience  sailing  on  lakes  and  bays  overhung  by 
mountains  will  appreciate  the  epithet  *  typhonic,' 
which  Luke  uses.  As  a  ship  captain  recently  said  to 
me  in  relating  an  anecdote  of  his  own  experience  in 
Cretan  waters,  '  The  wind  comes  down  from  those 
mountains  fit  to  blow  the  ship  out  of  the  water.'  " — 
Ramsay. 

19.  "  With  our  own  hands  we  threw  away  all  the 
ship's  fittings  and  equipment."  "  This  verse  is  a. 
climax.  It  records  the  extreme  act  of  sacrifice.  The 
first  person  used  in  the  Authorized  Version  occurs 
only  in  some  less  authoritative  MSS.,  but  greatly 
increases  the  effect.  The  sailors  threw  overboard 
part  of  the  cargo ;  and  the  passengers  and  supernu- 
meraries, in  eager  anxiety  to  do  something,  threw 
overboard  whatever  movables  they  found,  which  was 
of  little  or  no  practical  use,  but  they  were  eager  to  do 
something.  This  makes  a  striking  picture  of  growing 
panic;    but  the  third  person   which  appears  in  the 


410  STUDIES    IN   ACTS 

great  MSS.,  is  ineffective,  and  makes  no  climax." — 
Ramsay. 

21-26.  Paul's  action  here  is  that  of  one  whose 
soul  is  calmed  by  faith,  and  whose  God  answers 
prayer.     Paul  held  the  secret  of  heroism. 

**  God  hath  given  thee  all  them  that  are  with  thee." 
Evidently  Paul  had  been  praying  for  this.  He  who 
calmed  the  sea  of  Galilee  could  grant  an  answer  to 
Paul's  prayers  for  the  souls  of  his  fellows  in  the 
storm. 

31.  Here  and  in  verse  11  the  centurion  is  repre- 
sented as  in  chief  command  of  the  ship.  Prof. 
Ramsay  says: 

**To  our  modern  ideas  the  captain  is  supreme  on 
the  deck  of  his  ship  .  .  .  Here  the  ultimate 
decision  lies  with  the  centurion,  and  he  takes  the 
advice  of  the  captain.  The  centurion  therefore  is 
represented  as  the  commanding  officer,  which  implies 
that  the  ship  was  a  government  ship,  and  the  cen- 
turion ranked  as  the  highest  officer  on  board.  That 
doubtless  is  true  to  the  facts  of  Roman  service.  The 
provisioning  of  the  vast  city  of  Rome,  situated  in  a 
country  where  farming  had  ceased  to  pay  owing  to 
the  ruinous  foreign  competition  in  grain,  was  the 
most  serious  and  pressing  department  of  the  Imperial 
administration.  Whatever  else  the  Emperor  might 
neglect,  this  he  could  not  neglect  and  live.  In  the 
urban  populace  he  was  holding  a  wild  beast  by  the 
ear;  and,  if  he  did  not  feed  it,  the  beast  would  tear 
him  to  pieces.     With  ancient  means  of  transport  the 


NOTES   AND    COMMENTS  411 

task  was  a  hundred  times  harder  than  it  would  be 
now;  and  the  service  of  ships  on  which  Kome  was 
entirely  dependent  was  not  left  to  private  enterprise, 
but  was  a  state  department." 

33.  On  board  ship  during  a  storm  there  is  great 
inconvenience  in  getting  food,  and  with  many  not 
much  inclination  to  take  it.  For  these  reasons  the 
fourteen  days  was  a  practical  though  not  an  absolute 
fast. 

*'  What  the  apostle  means  is  that  the  crew  and 
passengers  had  taken  during  all  that  time  no  regular 
food,  only  snatching  a  morsel  now  and  then  when 
they  were  able,  and  that  of  something  which  had  not 
been  prepared." — Cambridge  Bible  for  Schools  and 
Colleges. 

35.  A  sublime  act.  Amidst  the  storm,  upon  a 
creaking  and  heaving  vessel  no  longer  sea-worthy, 
among  faces  pale  and  haggard  with  fear,  there  is  one 
man  who  is  calm,  prayerful,  thankful;  who  praises 
God  while  breaking  bread,  and  by  word  and  example 
encourages  others  to  be  calm  and  to  eat.  "Like  the 
father  of  a  family  among  those  at  table,"  says 
Meyer. 

44.  "  So  it  came  to  pass  that  all  escaped  safe  to 
land."  "  Onl}^  the  rarest  conjunction  of  favorable 
circumstances  could  have  brought  about  such  a  for- 
tunate ending  of  their  apparently  hopeless  situation ; 
and  one  of  the  completest  services  that  has  been  ren- 
dered to  New  Testament  scholarship  is  James 
Smith's  proof  (Voyage   and  Shipwreck  of  St.  Paul) 


412  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

that  all  these  circumstances  are  united  in  St.  Paul's 
Bay.  The  only  difficulty  to  which  he  has  applied  a 
rather  violent  solution  is  the  sandy  beach;  at  the 
traditional  point  where  the  ship  was  run  ashore 
there  is  no  sandy  beach;  but  he  considers  that  it  is 
*  now  worn  away  by  the  wasting  action  of  the  sea.' 
On  this  detail  only  local  knowledge  would  justify  a 
decision. " — Ramsay. 

"If  the  assumption  of  the  school  of  Bauer  as  to 
the  set  purpose  animating  the  book  of  Acts  were  cor- 
rect, this  narrative  of  the  voyage,  with  all  its  collat- 
eral circumstances  in  such  detail,  would  be  a  mean- 
ingless ballast  of  the  book.  But  it  justifies  itself  in 
the  purely  historical  destination  of  the  work,  and 
confirms  that  destination." — Meyer. 

"  Ridge  of  the  mountain  wave,  lower  thy  crest! 
Wail  of  Euraquilo,  be  thou  at  rest! 
Sorrow  can  never  be,   darkness   must   fly. 
Where  saith  the  Light  of  light,  Peace!    It  is  I." 

— QrecU  hymn  of  Anatolius.    Quoted  hy  Schaff. 


CHAPTER  XXYIII. 

1.     "They  knew  that  the  island  was  called  Melita." 
Modern  Malta.     At  present  there  can  be  no  doubt 
about  the  identification  of  this  island. 

*'  The  objections  which  have  been  advanced,  that 
there  are  now  no  vipers  on  the  island,  and  only  one 
place  where  any  wood  grows,  are  too  trivial  to  de- 
serve notice.     Such  changes  are  natural  and  probable 


NOTES   AND   COMMENTS  413 

in  a  small  island,  populous  and  long  civilized." — 
Ramsay. 

2.  **The  term  'barbarians'  is  characteristic  of 
the  nationality  of  the  writer.  It  does  not  indicate 
rudeness  or  uncivilized  habits,  but  merely  non-Greek 
birth.  It  is  difficult  to  imagine  that  a  Syrian  or  a 
Jew  or  any  one  but  a  Greek  would  have  applied  the 
name  to  the  people  of  Malta,  who  had  been  in  con- 
tact with  the  Phoenicians  and  the  Romans  for  many 
centuries." — Ramsay. 

7.  "  Chief  man  of  the  island,  whose  name  was 
Publius."  This  is  another  of  the  noble  Romans 
whom  we  are  accustomed  to  meet  so  frequently  in 
the  book  of  Acts.  The  Apostle  Paul  richly  repays 
his  hospitality. 

11.  *'A  ship  of  Alexandria."  A  government 
corn-ship  plying  between  Egypt  and  Rome.  (See 
note  on  xxvii.  31.) 

14.     *'     .     .     Puteoli,  where  we  found  brethren.*' 

"Puteoli,  as  a  great  harbor,  was  a  central  point 
and  a  crossing  of  intercourse ;  and  thus  Christianity 
had  already  established  itself  there.  All  movements 
of  thought  throughout  the  Empire  acted  with  mar- 
velous rapidity  on  Rome,  the  heart  of  the  vast  and 
complicated  organism;  and  the  crossing-places  or 
knots  on  the  main  highways  of  intercourse  with  the 
East,  Puteoli,  Corinth,  Ephesus,  Syrian  Antioch — 
became  centers  from  which  Christianity  radiated." — 
Ramsay. 

"  The  concession  of  a  seven  days'  stay  so  near  the 


414  STUDIES   IN  ACTS 

end  of  the  journey,  testifies  how  much  Paul  possessed 
the  love  and  confidence  of  the  centurion." — Meyer, 
During  these  seven  days  the  brethren  in  Rome 
could  easily  be  notified  of  Paul's  progress  toward 
the  city. 

15.  The  Three  Taverns  was  about  33  miles  out 
from  Rome,  and  Appii  Forum  about  40.  Paul  had 
never  before  been  welcomed  and  escorted  thus  to  a 
city.  Rome  was  an  *'  epitome  of  the  inhabited 
world,"  and  Paul  had  long  desired  to  visit  it  as  the 
climax  of  his  labors.  How  ardently  he  must  have 
approached  the  city!  and  with  what  misgivings  as  a 
prisoner  in  chains!  How  many  doubts  must  have 
risen  in  his  mind!  Had  his  Jewish  enemies  com- 
municated with  the  authorities,  or  with  the  Jewish 
Christians?  Would  the  church  receive  him  at  all? 
Would  his  old  friends  and  former  fellow-workers, 
some  of  whom  had  drifted  to  Rome,  welcome  him? 
Ah,  they  knew  his  heart,  and  they  knew  his  circum- 
stances, and  they  did  a  most  gracious  thing  in  going 
out  to  greet  and  welcome  him. 

16.  "Captain   of  the  guard." 

**  The  Greek  title  8tratopedarch  very  rarely 
occurs;  and  it  remained  for  Mommsen,  aided  by  the 
form  given  in  an  old  Latin  version,  Princeps  Peri- 
grinoruin,  to  explain  who  the  officer  really  was,  and 
to  place  the  whole  episode  of  Paul's  Roman  impris- 
onment in  a  new  light. 

"Augustus  had  reduced  to  a  regular  system  the 
maintenance  of  communications  between  the  center 


NOTES   AND   COMMENTS  415 

of  control  in  Rome  and  the  armies  stationed  in  the 
great  frontier  provinces.  Legionary  centurions,  com- 
monly called  frumenlarii,  went  to  and  fro  between 
Rome  and  the  armies,  and  were  employed  for  numer- 
ous purposes  that  demanded  communication  between 
the  Emperor  and  his  armies  and  provinces.  They 
acted  not  only  for  commissariat  purposes  (whence 
the  name),  but  as  couriers,  and  for  police  purposes, 
and  for  conducting  prisoners;  and  in  time  they 
became  detested  as  agents  and  spies  of  the  govern- 
ment. They  all  belonged  to  legions  stationed  in  the 
provinces,  and  were  considered  to  be  on  detached 
duty  when  they  went  to  Rome ;  and  hence  in  Rome 
they  were  *  soldiers  from  abroad,'  jperigrini.  While 
in  Rome  they  resided  in  a  camp  on  the  Cselian  Hill, 
called  Castra  Perigrinorum.  In  this  camp  there 
were  always  a  number  of  them  present,  changing 
from  day  to  day,  as  some  came  and  others  went 
away.  This  camp  was  under  the  command  of  the 
Princeps  Perigrinoritm ;  and  it  is  clear  that  Strato- 
pedarch  in  Acts  is  the  Greek  name  for  that  officer." 
— Ramsay. 

17-31.  For  material  upon  these  verses  the  reader 
is  referred  to  the  last  pages  of  Essay  XII. 

"During  the  two  years  of  his  imprisonment  Paul 
regarded  himself  as  *an  ambassador  in  a  chain' 
(Eph.  vi.  20);  he  asked  the  prayers  of  the  Colossian 
and  Asian  churches  generally  for  his  success  in 
preaching;  his  tone  is  hopeful,  and  full  of  energy 
and  spirit  for  the  work  (Col.  iv.  3,  4),  and  he  looked 


416  STUDIES   IN   ACTS 

forward  to  acquittal  and  a  visit  to  ColossaB  (Philem. 
22).''— Ramsay. 

**The  presence  of  many  friends  in  Rome  also 
cheered  Paul.  He  had  been  permitted  to  take  two 
personal  attendants  with  him  from  Csesarea;  but 
though  his  other  companions  in  Jerusalem  were  pre- 
vented from  accompanying  him  in  his  voyage,  some 
of  them  followed  him  to  Rome.  Timothy  was  with 
him  during  the  great  part  of  his  imprisonment,  was 
sent  on  a  mission  to  Philippi  about  the  end  of  61 
(Phil.  ii.  19),  and  thereafter  seems  to  have  had  his 
headquarters  in  Asia,  whence  he  was  summoned  by 
Paul  to  join  him  during  his  second  imprisonment. 
Tychicus  also  joined  Paul  in  Rome  in  60,  and  was 
sent  on  a  mission  to  Asia,  and  especially  to  the 
churches  of  the  Lycos  valley,  early  in  61.  They 
probably  left  Csesarea  when  Paul  sailed  for  Rome, 
visited  on  the  way  their  own  homes,  and  arrived  in 
Rome  not  long  after  Paul  himself." — Ramsay. 

It  is  pleasing  to  note  that  Mark  visited  Paul  in 
Rome  (Col.  iv.  10),  and  that  Paul  commends  him 
warmly  to  the  Christians  whom  he  expected  to  meet 
in  Asia,  and  even  took  pains  to  send  oral  commenda- 
tions beforehand  in  his  behalf.  With  these  glimpses 
of  friendship  and  reunion,  and  of  forgetting  and  for- 
giving, and  of  *'care  for  all  the  churches,"  the  life  of 
Paul  passes  from  the  pages  of  history. 

*'Paul  at  Rome!  Climax  of  the  Gospel!  End  of 
Acts!     Victory  of  the  word  of  God!  " — Bengel. 


INDEX 


Advent,  second.  320. 

Agabus,  139. 

Amos,  quoted,  149. 

Amphitheater.  185. 

Ananias  and  Sappliira,  83. 

Angel,  of  the  Church,  280. 

Antioch,  in  Syria,  123  f. 

Antiochus,    Epipanes,    death    of, 
153. 

Apostles,     Christological    teach- 
ing of,  54. 

Aquila,  234. 

Aristarchus,  250. 

Arnold,  quoted,  189. 

Athens,  227. 

Atonement,  23,  46,  59,  60. 

Augustine,  quoted,  140. 

Baptism,  45,  51,  52,  224,  314,  319, 
346. 

Baptism,  liousehold,  374. 

Baptism,  infant,  375. 

Baptism,  culmination  of  conver- 
sion, 117. 

Barnabas,  129,  159. 

Berea,  church  established,  227. 

Blaspliemy,  final.  73. 

Brace,    Charles    L,oring,   quoted, 
137,  187. 

Browning,  Mrs.  quoted,  233. 

Brutus,  suicide  of,  223. 

Campbell,  A.,  quoted,  274. 

Carey,  William,  177,  224. 

Carlyle,  quoted,  43,  232. 

Charles  IX..  of  France,  death  of, 
154. 

Christian,  the  name,  134,  355,  356, 
406. 

Christophany,  of  Stephen,  96. 

Chronology,  of  Acts,  17. 

Chrysostom.  39. 

Church,  a  praying  brotherhood, 
63. 

Church,  benefactions  of,  67. 

Church,  basis  of  membership  in, 
52. 

Church,  social  soul  of,  67. 

(27)  41 


Cicero,  quoted,  124. 
Civilization,  Greek,  188. 
Claudius,  edict  of,  18. 
Commission,  Clirist's,  30. 
Communion  Service,  58,  61. 
Communism,  65,  66,  140,  326  f . 
Confession,  the  good,  346. 
Conversion,  318. 
Cook,  Joseph,  quoted,  218,  221. 
Cornelius,    conversion    of,    105  f, 

character  of,  115. 
Covetousness,  329. 
Corinth,  described,  233. 
Cowper,  quoted,  28. 
Crafts,  Rev.  Wilbur  F.,   quoted, 

308. 
Creasy,  quoted,  189. 
Creed,  Apostles',  54,  80. 
Crown,  of  thorns,  31. 
Crucifixion,  36. 
Deacons,  90,  280. 
Demas,  251. 
Denominations,  135. 
De  Pressense,  quoted,  213. 
Diana,  temple  of,  383. 
Dorner,  quoted,  43. 
Ebionites,  .214. 

Edersheim,  quoted,  107,  304,  306. 
Edwards,  Jonathan,  39. 
Elders,  280. 

Elders,  appointed,  230. 
Elymas,  the  sorcerer,  192. 
Epaphras,  250. 
Epicureans,  139,  228. 
Eunuch,  baptism  of,  107. 
Evidence,  cumulative,  148. 
Exorcism,  381. 
Expediency,  284,  332. 
Famine,  in  Jerusalem,  136,  294. 
Farrar,  quoted,  183,  207,  209.  2^. 
Felix,  19. 
Festus,  19, 
Fisher,  Prof.  George  P.,  quoted, 

154. 
Forgiveness,  24,  75,  78,  100,  819. 
(See  remission). 


418 


INDEX 


Fortune,  goddess  of,  139. 
Future,  the,  306. 
Gallio,  236. 
Gamaliel,  84,  330. 
Gibbon,  quoted,  247. 
Godet,  quoted,  184,  302. 
Gospel,  universal,  109. 
Government,  Roman,  188, 
Hackett,  Dr.  Horatio  B.,  quoted, 

16.  17,  311. 
Hades.  312. 
Hatred,  111. 
Herder,  quoted,  43. 
Herod  Agrippa  I.,  144. 
Herod  Agrippa  I.,    death  of.  152. 
Herod  Antipas,  145. 
Herod  the  Great,  145. 
Heroism,  of  the  martyrs,  84. 
Holv  Spirit,  historic  presence  of. 

12^; 
Holy  Spirit,  promise  of,  31. 
Holy  Spii'it,  guidance  of,  113,  117. 
Holy  Spirit,  in  the  church,  259  f. 
Impurity,  of  pagan  worship,  211. 
Inspiration,  93,  310. 
Isaiah,  quoted,  118. 
Jailer,  converted,  225. 
James,  the  brother  of  the  Lord, 

209. 
James,  the  martyr  apostle,   143  f. 
Jerusalem,  destruction  of,  214. 
Jerusalem,    superseded   by    Anti- 

och,  219. 
Jesus,  a  reality,  24. 
Jesus,  messiahship  of,  31. 
Jesus,  Laml)  of  God,  35. 
Jesus,  unique  life  of,  36. 
Jesus,  Lord  and  Christ,  44. 
Jesus,  fellowship  of,  57. 
Jesus,  love  of,  59. 
Jesus,  hated,  76. 
Jesus,  method  of,  99. 
Jesus,  on  tlie  (Jross,  100. 
Jesus,  prediction  of,  150. 
Jews,  mockery  of,  71. 
John  the  Baptist,  :34,  61. 
John|the  Baptist,  message  of,  149, 
Judson,  Adoniram,  177. 
Justification.  3(56. 
Justin  Martvr,  84. 
Kurtz,  quoted,  285,  289,  309,  315. 
Law  and  Gospel,  92. 
Latimer,  84,  88. 
Lazarus,  resurrection  of,  76. 
Liberty,  false,  129. 


Livingstone,  David,  177. 

Lord's  Day,  109. 

Lord's  Supper,  316. 

Love,  Christian,  30,  78. 

Love,    as    a    principle    of    unity,. 
293  f . 

Loyalty,  to  Christ,  132. 

Luther,  quoted,  84,  197. 

Luke,  author  of  Acts,  15,  16. 

Lydia,  converted,  223. 

Macaulay,  quoted,  184. 

Martyn,  Henry,  177. 

Matthias,  307. 

Milton,  quoted,  42. 

Ministry,  362. 

Miracles,  43,  75,  81. 

Miraculous,  the,  20. 

Mishna,  324. 

Missions,  defended,  126. 

Moloch,  339. 

Mystery,  of  the  Gospel,  118. 

Neander,  quoted,  50,  203. 

Necessity,  intellectual,  13. 

Nero.  144. 

Nero,  death  of,  154. 

Nero,  Paul  before,  242. 

Nero,  burning  of  Rome,  248. 

Ordination,  370. 

Orthodoxy,  79,  80. 

Paganism,  ancient,  181. 

Paley,  William,  305. 

Parousia.  319. 

Patronus,  Patrona,  285. 

Parker,  Joseph,  quoted,  202. 

Paul,  characterized,  15. 

appeal  to  Cassar,  19,  241 ; 
conversion  of,  1 66,  347  f ; 
early  date  of  Epistles,  21 ; 
as  a'  martyr,  84 ;  brought  to 
Antioch,  133 ;  sent  out  With 
Barnabas,  159;  primacy  of, 
161:  endowments  of,  165; 
apostle  of  emancipation, 
168;  preaching  in  Pisidian 
Antioch,  194;  in  Iconium, 
197;  in  Lystra,  198;  crosses 
the  yEgejin,  221 ;  in  Athens, 
229 ;  connection  with  Roman 
officials,  243;  imprisonment 
in  Rome,  247;  not  penniless, 
252;  as  organizer  and  uni- 
fier, 275  f;  change  of  name, 
363 ;  character  of,  389 ;  in  the. 
storm,  411;  companions  m 
Rome,  416. 


INDEX 


419 


Pentecost,  31. 
Pentecost,  sermon  on,  33. 
Pentecost,  preparation  for,  34. 
Pentecost,  birthday  of  the  church, 

105. 
Persecution,  75,  79,  80,  99,  125. 
Peter,  the  apostle,  40. 
Peter,  primacy  of,  84,  160. 
Peter,  true  Jew,  112,  114. 
Peter,  revelations  to,  116. 
Peter,  defense   of   Gentile   Chris- 
tianity, 208. 
Phariseeism,  76. 
Phebe,  Patrona,  285. 
,Poetry,  42. 

Prayer,  unspiritual,  31. 
Prayer,  in  tl)e  first  church,  63,  64. 

82,  151. 
Progress,  128. 
Prophecy,  Messianic,  30. 
Pulpit,  prostitution  of,  38. 
Pulpit,  sacredness  of,  39. 
Pulpit,  themes  of,  40,  44. 
Rabbinical  Schools.  323. 
Ramsay,  Prof.  W.  M.,  quoted  13, 

14,  .17.    18,  20,  206,  220,  246,  253, 

301. 
Ramsay,  theory  stated,  244. 
Reality,  the  soul  of  religion,  24. 
Remission  of  sins,  46. 
Renan,  quoted,  124,  145,  232. 
Repentance,  46. 
Resurrection  of  Jesus,  35,  36,  305. 

312. 
Resurrection  of  Jesus,  effect  upon 

the  Jews,  71. 
Retaliation,  75. 

Romans,  hated  by  the  Jews,  112. 
Rome,  247. 

Ruskin,  quoted,  61,  333. 
Sabbath,  Jewish,  109. 
Sabattier,    quoted,    85,    104,    158, 

218,  240,  283. 


Sacrifice,  human,  340. 
Sadduceeism,  77. 
Samaritans,  conversion  of,  108 
Sanday,  Prof.,  quoted,  315. 
Sanhedrin,  described,  83. 
Sanhedrin,  maxim  of,  89. 
Schaff,  quoted,   43,  122,   311.  314, 

317. 
Scribes,  learning  of,  321. 
Sectarianism,  136. 
Sergius  Paulus,  192. 
Silas,  212,  220,  291. 
Slaves,  in  the  Roman  Empire,  185. 
Smith,  Henry  B.,  quoted,  43. 
Sorcerers,  192,  193,  343. 
Stephen,  martvrdom  of,  89  f. 
Stoicism,  139,  229. 
Strauss,  22. 

Succession,  apostolic.  54. 
Sunday,  307. 
Synagogue,  model  of  the  church, 

281. 
Tanners,  unclean,  113. 
Tennyson,  quoted,  42. 
Theology,  systematic.  23. 
Theophany,  of  Stephen,  96. 
Thessalonica,  church  established, 

226. 
Timothy,  student  of  Paul,  250. 
Titus,  student  of  Paul.  250. 
Torquemada,  130. 
Traditionalism,  127,  322,  331. 
Tubingen,  theory,  13. 
Uncleanness,  ceremonial.  354. 
Union,  Christian,  52.  388. 
Venus,  worship  of,  211. 
Victor  Hugo,  quoted,  145. 
Way,  the,  22. 
Weiss,  quoted,  306. 
We-narratives,  16. 
Whittier.  quoted.  42,  306. 
Woman,  treatment  of  among-  the 

ancients,  368,  374.  376.  378.  ^ 


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